Accident
by Clara Fonteyn
Summary: Annabeth is in an accident. After she contracts a fatal disease, Grover, Annabeth and Percy have to go on a terrifing/humorous race against time. Percabeth promised! No more Twilight, even though there wasn't much to begin with. Rated T to be safe.B4 TLO!
1. Accident

**Hi, it's me again. Yeah, the person who let you flame for no reason. You can still do that. Okay, in this story, Annabeth is in an accident… so how does Percy react? **

**_*******************REMEMBER: THIS STORY TAKES PLACE after Battle of the Labyrinth but BEFORE THE LAST OLYMPIAN!!!**************************_**

_Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. All rights belong to Rick Riordan._

"Percy!"

"What, mom?" I looked up from the computer, where I was IM'ing Rachel. No, not Iris Messaging, Instant Messaging.

"Annabeth will be here soon, Percy. Don't you want to get ready for you_ date_?" Annabeth was stopping by my apartment today, after which we would go see some movie. I had no idea what was playing. Call me insane, but I'm usually too busy trying to save the world or my life, or both, to catch up with teen pop culture. Whatever, hopefully Annabeth would know of a movie.

Right now I had bigger problems. Like how my mom kept insisting that today was a date. That's exactly what she did last summer. "Mom, I told you it's not a date! It's just Annabeth!"

"Whatever you say, dear!" I groaned and the conversation with Rachel. I didn't tell her that Annabeth was coming over, though; she and Rachel weren't exactly best friends. I didn't understand why they couldn't get along. **(A/N The day you come up with a cloning machine, Percy, is the day they'll get along, 'cause then they can each have their very own Percy Jackson!)**

I got up and changed my shirt, slipping on a random blue-green polo.

That's when I got that phone call.

"Hello?"

"Percy…" the voice on the other side was a broken whisper, but I could still tell who it was.

"Annabeth! What's wrong?"

"Percy… accident… off Broadway and 33rd … near East river…" she gasped painfully.

It was like ice water was running through my veins. With the war coming up, it was very possible that she'd been attacked my monsters or worse. If Kronos had hurt Annabeth… I didn't finish the thought. Instead I turned my attention back to Annabeth.

"What happened?! Annabeth…"

The dial tone was ringing in my ears. Annabeth wasn't on the line anymore.

***

I grabbed the keys to my mom's car and sprinted out of my apartment, ignoring her questions. I didn't have time for this. If she was in a taxi, the driver wouldn't be able to help her. If she was alone, and she'd used her cell, she'd basically sent up a flare for monsters. And with all the blood I imagined she'd spilled… I flinched. There was nobody conscious near her; they could've called for help.

No, Annabeth was all alone. And if I was the only one she'd called, nobody could save my wise girl… but me.

**Aw, how sweet. Percy considers Annabeth 'his' Wisegirl, at least when he's panicked. Anyway, please review… 'cause I'm not gonna update till I get at least 5… so if you want to know if anyone dies… press that green button!!!**


	2. Safe

**Eeee! I can't believe it! I asked for 5 reviews, and I got them within an hour???!!! Oh my gods! Wow! Thanks for all the reviews! And, as promised, chapter 2!**

_Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. All rights belong to Rick Riordan._

I drove towards the East river going as fast as possible, 160 miles per hour. It never occurred to me that I should be more careful, drive slower, since I didn't even have my license. I couldn't even think. All I knew was that Annabeth was in trouble, in _danger_, and she needed me to be there right now. What had she said? _Off Broadway and 33rd_. I drove towards the area she'd said. And when I saw her, I almost passed out.

The right side of Annabeth's body was bloody, broken and mangled in a horrible way. She was completely surrounded by remains of a taxi, but the driver was nowhere to be seen. I ran towards her, trying my best to avoid pieces of the smoking car, but I still got cut and burned every once in a while.

When I finally got to her, I hunched over her, trying to feel for a pulse. The relief it gave me when I felt it was unimaginable. It was faint, but it was there. I needed to get her ambrosia. I grabbed the baggie in my pocket and fed her a square…another one… another. This time the bleeding stopped, and her eyes fluttered open.

She was trying to say something, but she was still so weak. All she could do was frame the words. I tried my best to soothe her. "Hey Annabeth, it's okay, you're okay, see…" my voice trailed off as she tilted her head slightly and saw the blood under her neck. "Okay, so maybe _not_ okay, but you know me, I'm a Seaweed Brain. We need to get you to a hospital right now. Did you hit your neck or something when—all this happened?"

Annabeth shook her head the slightest bit. I picked her up, bridal style, and carried her to my car. I have no idea how I managed to open the back door at the same time, but I did. Then I drove, again like a madman, to Providence Park hospital. I screeched to a stop in the ER parking lot, and carried her again through the double doors.

Inside, a parade of people instantly came to attention, snapping orders. They asked me a few questions. I told them I was her best friend, she was in an accident, all that. When they asked me what happened, all I could tell them was, "I wasn't there, I was driving by, I just saw her."

The doctors, nurses, whatever, took her down to a room, and the only thing they told me was—"This is a critical case. We don't know what will happen. There may be a need to operate. There is a fifty percent chance that she'll live."

_There is a fifty percent chance that she'll live._

I couldn't believe it. NO! Not Annabeth, not her! She didn't deserve this, all this uncertainty. Annabeth deserved a long life, a happy one. Not this danger, not this pain, not any of _this_. I couldn't think, couldn't breathe. Nothing. I just got in the car and drove to the Oceanside. I had no idea how long I just sat there, staring at the ocean. The only place I could think clearly.

Finally, I came to my senses. I drove back to the hospital and called my mother, Dr. Chase, Camp Half-Blood. Within a half-hour, mom, the Chases, and Chiron were all there.

"Oh honey! Oh! How—where is she?" My mom found me first, and rushed to hug me. I just stood there numbly. I guess I was going into shock. The Chases followed her and asked me the same thing.

"Where is Annabeth? How is she? What happened?" Dr. Chase was frantic. At least he could do something. I wasn't even sure I could talk… but I did, hollowly repeating the doctor's words.

"They said that it's a critical case. They don't know what will happen. They might have to operate." I heard someone's sharp intake of breath and felt a pang of something…sympathy? I hadn't said the worst thing yet. "She—Annabeth has a fifty percent chance of—" my voice broke, but I continued. "Of _living._"

"Oh my gods…" I hadn't seen Chiron arrive, but there he was, along with a few of Annabeth's siblings.

We all sat in the waiting room for hours, nobody moving an inch.

***

For once, my battlefield reflexes did not get in my way. Just sitting there would have driven me insane normally, but now I couldn't move—at least until the doctor who had taken charge of Annabeth came by.

"Mr. Jackson?" I stood up. "Have you contacted Ms. Chase's family?" I nodded, and pointed out the Chases.

"How is she?" My own voice surprised me. I wasn't…whatever. "Where is she? Can we see her?"

The doctor looked tired and ran a hand through his pale blond hair. "Well, for now she's in a stable condition. The blood loss she has suffered has left her almost completely drained. Since we were able to stop the blood flow, we do no need to operate at the current time. Right now she is in room 818. As to seeing her, you may visit her for a short time."

Someone made a strangled gulp kind of sound, and after a second, I realized it was me. "So she's conscious?" I was unable to keep excitement out of my voice.

"Yes, she is now. However, until a short time ago, she was in a delirium, crying out repeatedly for you, Mr. Jackson, and a 'Seaweed Brain.'

"That's him," Dr. Chase said, giving me a strange look. "She calls him 'seaweed brain' as a nickname."

"Well, you can see her for a short time as I said, but please, don't crowd her." After speaking quietly with the Chases for a short time, he left.

"Percy, you should go see her, seen as she asked for you." I noticed that Chiron was looking at me oddly, too. Weird.

I walked down the stainless steel hall, noting the faint smell of medicine in the air. Disgusting, but I guess slightly calming in another way. Don't worry; I'm not gonna become a druggie.

I stopped in front of the door to room 818.

***

As soon as I stepped inside, my eyes flew to the blond haired girl in the bed. Annabeth turned her head a bit to look at me, and asked, "Percy?" I walked over to the bed quickly, and answered.

"Annabeth? Oh my Gods! Wha… Don't ever do that again! I swear, Annabeth, your entire family is here. And Chiron, and Malcolm, and a few of your other siblings…"

She lifted her hand and placed it on mine. "How did I get here? I remember calling you, and then… everything went black. When I came to, that doctor, Dr. Heale, he said you brought me here. I didn't say anything, I couldn't. I guess I was too weak. So explain."

"Well, Annabeth," I began. "You called me, right, and told me where you were. I drove there, and saw you, surrounded by pieces of taxi. I got you to the hospital. I'm kind of surprised that you don't remember, though, because you were still conscious when I found you."

"What? How did you get me here? You called 911? And I… I was conscious? Then why don't I remember? I don't even remember why I'm hurt. I guess it's from the blood loss?" She didn't sound too sure, and she was starting to breathe harder. This was taking too much of her energy.

"Shh, Annabeth, don't think so much. And no, I didn't call 911. I carried you to my car, mom's car, actually, and then drove here, but I don't see why that's so important. And we can figure out the rest later. Get some rest."

"Okay," she breathed, and closed her eyes. It really wasn't like her to give in without a fight; she must have been really tired. I sat on the chair by her bed. No way was I going to leave, no matter what some Dr. Heale said. I settled in, thanking Olympus. _She's safe. Thank you._

**Review, please!**


	3. Etgroftnig and Vuretole

_Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. _

The first thing I saw when I woke up was Annabeth smirking at me. "You drool in your sleep," she said.

"Why, thanks, Wise Girl. I know, since you told me, 4 years ago, when we talked for the first time I was conscious. And I don't even get a good morning? Gods, you are so ungrateful!"

"What do I need to be grateful for?" She looked puzzled, like I had just told her a riddle she couldn't understand.

"Annabeth? Don't you remember? Last night you were in an accident. You called me, and I managed to get you here, to the hospital. You were even conscious, and we talked a little last night."

"I don't—don't remember any of this. Wait, you said last night. How long have you been here? An _accident?_What happened? And my dad? Chiron? All I remember was that I was going to your place…"

I was going to answer, but just then the doctor walked in. "Good morning, Ms. Chase! And Mr. Jackson… were you here overnight? That's not allowed." Jeez, this Dr. Heale was getting on my nerves.

"I wasn't going to leave her here. Annabeth is my best friend." He nodded like he understood.

"Now, Ms. Chase—" Annabeth cut in.

"Please, call me Annabeth. And call _him_ Percy!" She added with a glare at me. I shot her a look that said 'hey!' Her glare intensified.

"All right, Annabeth. Now do you remember anything about your accident?" She shook her head sadly. "Well, that's quite common in a case like yours, with blood loss—"

She cut the doctor off again. "But Dr. Heale, I don't remember last night either. That's not normal, is it?"

He looked shocked. "You don't remember anything? Oh dear, this is one of my worst fears… well, I need your family, that Mr. Brunner, and of course, you, Mr. Ja—Percy. We need to talk immediately."

"I'll get them," I volunteered, then ran off to find them. I didn't like the look on Dr. Cullen's face too much.

Within 15 minutes, Dr. Chase, Chiron, Nico and Grover were all in 818, along with Annabeth, Heale, and me. Immediately Dr. Chase asked Heale, "Well, Dr. Heale, did you need us for something?"

Dr. Heale looked a little nervous. "Please, call me Will. First off, I must tell you all… I know about the Greek gods."

Everyone in the room sent off a 'WHAT!' vibe.

"In fact," he continued, "I have reason to believe that I may be a son of Apollo, so kind of related to you, Annabeth, Percy, and Nico."

Once William—Will-- got everything explained—very messy—Dr. Chase asked, "All right, but what's wrong with Annabeth?"

Will sucked in his breath. "I suspect that Annabeth has a very rare disease, spread through a type of poison, called Etgroftnig. It is a disease in which the victim starts to forget, similar to Alzheimer's. The difference is that her memory will move backward. Meaning today Annabeth may remember events up till 9/18. Tomorrow, she might remember only till 9/15, and so on."

"What! No! There's got to be a way to save her! We have to do something!" My voice was out of control, and Annabeth looked horrified.

"I have had only 11 patients with this disease in my 366 years. As I said, it is very rare. However, there is _one_ cure: Vuretole."

He pronounced it _vuh-reh-tuh-lee_. "What is Vuretole?" I asked.

"Nobody knows. All I can say is that you must go to the west coast of America."

"Alright then, I'm going on a quest 'from the sea to shining sea,' and Grover, and Annabeth…?"

"Yes, of course," Annabeth said. Grover nodded.

Chiron protested, "My boy, Annabeth is weak—"

"Chiron, I can't stay behind. This is Percy's quest, but it for me, for my cure, and I must come along. I can't forgive myself if I'm not there and something happens to either Percy or Grover." Annabeth's voice was quiet, but firm.

Chiron nodded. "Fine then, if you insist. Percy, you must get a quest from the Oracle first."

"I'll shadow travel you there," volunteered Nico. He laid a hand on my shoulder and muttered an incantation in Ancient Greek- and suddenly I was in the Big House attic. I looked to the right, and there was Nico. "I'll be downstairs," he said, and he ran down the trap door entrance.

In a second I heard him scream in terror and Dionysus swear at him in Greek. Something about toilet paper… I got a mental picture that would leave me mentally scarred for the rest of my life…

I turned to the Oracle. "What must I do to save Annabeth?"

***

As the last time I'd been given a prophecy, the green mist surrounded me. And again, like last time, I saw an image -- but this time it was of Thalia, Calypso, Rachel, and…Annabeth.

Thalia spoke first, in the Oracle's raspy voice. "You shall unveil the memories of past,"

Calypso spoke then. "Only loyalty shall last."

Rachel now spoke. "The choice of the worlds will you make."

Annabeth- "And only one can you take."

I knew from experience that it wouldn't do me any good to question the Oracle. I simply watched as the green mist withdrew.

When I walked back downstairs, I saw Nico sitting in a chair. Dionysus was nowhere to be seen. Nico looked up and noticed me.

"Ready to go?" he questioned. I nodded. He touched my shoulder and in a second we were back in Providence hospital, room 818.

As soon as we, um, materialized, Chiron asked me, "What happened? Did you get the prophecy?"

I nodded and said, "Yes, it went like this—" and I recited the prophecy. Prophecies aren't always literal, and there was nothing too disturbing in this one, so I told them the whole thing. I didn't mention the vision, though, it was a little freaky seeing four, um, _friends_, I guess, like that.

Chiron nodded. "Alright, Percy. With a little ambrosia and nectar, all of Annabeth's wounds have been healed. You, Grover, and Annabeth will start your quest tomorrow. Now get a good night of sleep, you'll need it."

I was going to reply, but just then Dr. Heale interrupted. "He can sleep here at the hospital—there's a little room off of room 818 for visiting family… or friends." He led me down another hallway to a tiny but comfortable room. "Here we are."

I nodded and thanked him. He was about to leave, but hen stopped. "Percy, I haven't told you all everything I know about this disease." I didn't need to ask what disease he was talking about. "She has only 11 days. 11 days, 11 hours, and 11 minutes before she loses her memory permanently. In 11 days, 10 hours, and 11 minutes, she will collapse into a comatose state. But she will say one thing before that—the most important thing in her life—her identity. The one thing she will name will be the key to finding Vuretole. Once she sinks into this comatose state, you will have one hour. _One _hour before she will succumb to the disease completely. Once your hour is up, she will be beyond help of any power—god, titan, or even Ouranos. One hour is all the time you have."

I was pretty much as terrified as I could get. One hour… it was such a small amount of time. Would it be enough to save Annabeth?

"Don't tell any of them," he continued. "It will only cause them more pain and it might reduce the pitiful amount of energy she has to begin with."

I nodded, and he gave me a weak smile. "Now get some sleep. Like Chiron said, tomorrow, you'll need it."

**So, did you like it? I had a lot of people write in saying they loved my story, and that made me feel guilty for being such a terrible updater. FYI, I'll try to update on weekends. Now, I realize that if I update Sunday night, it won't necessarily be Sunday night for all of you. All I can say is—Story Alert! *shameless adverting***

**Oh and one more thing—I love all you reviewers out there! If I didn't reply to your review, (and you didn't review anonymously) it's 'cause my e-mail crashed, so SORRY! And to all the anonymous reviewers, THANK Y'ALL SO SO SO MUCH! You guys really inspire me to keep working! Thanks a bunch!**

**Till next time,**

**Cweedbrn.**


	4. Setting Out

**Okay, so I had free time in Computer Programming at school, so I decided to write this chapter. **

_Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians._

Oh yeah, get some sleep. Yeah right. He should've known that now I'd get demigod nightmares. Seriously, they suck. This time I dreamed I was on _The Princess Andromeda_, listening to Luke talk to his hit-bear-men, Agrius and Orieus.

"You fools! I told you both to infect Jackson, not the girl!" Luke's voice wasn't raspy and sharp, like Kronos's. It was his voice. His eyes weren't the gold of Kronos's, either. They were the stained-glass blue they used to be.

"Y-yes master." I watched Agrius cower. Orieus simply frowned and said. "Boo-boo."

"What do you mean, 'yes master'! You've gone and ruined the whole plan! If you had infected Jackson, Kronos could've been reborn without any delays! That incompetent son of Hades would've been the Hero of the Prophecy! But--" Luke stopped talking suddenly. A slow, cruel smile spread across his face. "Wait… Jackson will go on a quest to save her, of this I'm sure. It won't be too hard to pick him off on the way… yes, and we'll use Annabeth as bait."

Like a reflex, my dream-self growled and clenched his fists. Unfortunately, Luke seemed to sense I was there. He spun to face 'me.' But before anything else happened, I wasn't there anymore. I was on Ogygia.

Calypso was kneeling by her garden. I called out to her. "Calypso!" She seemed to hear me and looked up.

"Hello, Percy," she replied. "How are you on Ogygia?"

"As far as I know, I'm not. I'm in a dream, so I'm…visiting, I guess."

"Ah. You seem troubled, Percy. Is something wrong?" Her voice was gentle and caring. Although she didn't look any older than me, she suddenly reminded me of my mom. Gods.

"Yeah, you know my friend Annabeth? She's sick; she has this disease that'll make her forget everything she knows. Luke—Kronos—infected her with the disease. I need to find a way to save her. It's really important."

"I know she's a really good friend of yours. When you were unconscious here, you only mentioned Grover and Tyson once. Other than that, all you said was Annabeth's name. That's it."

I felt my face turning red. "Yeah, she's… she's my best friend. She's like the only one who gets me, you know? Well, she gets me most of the time. I don't know why she's so mean to Rachel."

Calypso laughed gently. "Percy, you are very sweet, but you don't understand one thing—both Rachel and Annabeth are jealous of each other."

"What?" My face felt even warmer now. "Wha… that doesn't even make sense! I don't…"

"Percy, it matters not if you like one or both or neither of them. The fact remains that both of them like you, and both are jealous of each other." Calypso's voice was calm and quiet.

"How would you know?" As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I was sorry for them. I really didn't want to hurt her feelings.

She didn't look hurt—in fact she was laughing quietly. "Percy, I am a woman, just like your friends. I understand what they're going through, truly. And mark my words, Perseus Jackson; you will soon have to decide between them. You cannot go on constantly switching your loyalty between Annabeth and Rachel."

Her words struck something in me. Something… I couldn't remember. All of a sudden the island was blurring, and so was Calypso. "Goodbye, Percy. Perhaps we will meet again soon."

In a second everything was dark, and then light again.

I opened my eyes to see the tiny room I slept in that night. Annabeth was shaking my shoulder. "Percy, wake up!"

"Wha—" I was going to ask her what she was doing, but then I remembered. There would be only one reason Annabeth would be waking me up under these circumstances—the quest.

She spoke then, and her voice echoed my thoughts. "Its morning; time to start the quest. By the way, you really should see a doctor about the drooling; you still do, you know."

"Ah, yes, how could I forget after you telling me the first time you saw me when I was fully conscious?"

Annabeth smiled. "Good times. Remember Aunty Em, and The Lotus Hotel and Casino? Oh, and don't forget—"

I interrupted. "—Crusty's Water Bed Palace and The Tunnel… I mean Waterland in Denver." I tried to hide that I was going to say "The Tunnel of Love," but I think she noticed anyway. I never thought that I'd go on a Tunnel of Love ride with metal spiders, a magic scarf, and a shield of a war god back then. If anything, Greek mythology has taught me to expect the unexpected.

"Well, come on, Percy, our quest starts in an hour, and you still need to go to your apartment and get your stuff ready." I nodded and she stuck out a hand. I grabbed it and hoisted myself out of the bed.

"I'll go now, I guess. Meet you here in… hmm, twenty minutes?"

"Sure, see you then. I'll go see about Grover."

"No, don't; I'll find him when I leave."

"Okay."

I got started in earnest then. Running out of the room, I slammed into Grover. "Hey, G-man! Get ready; the quest starts in an hour."

"Percy, I've been ready for a while now! Well, other than my hat and tin cans."

"Okay, dude. I've got to go get my stuff ready, but I'll meet you both here in 20 minutes," I answered. He nodded.

I ran down the front steps of the hospital without running into anyone else I knew. In a second, I was in the Toyota Camry, on my way through the New York traffic.

Inside the apartment, I grabbed basically everything I thought we'd need and stuffed it into a bag. You know, javelins, knifes, all that jazz. I also threw in a small pouch of Drachmas and a roll of mortal cash. I barely managed to stuff in a few sets of clothes, like ten shirts and two pairs of jeans. Riptide was in my pocket, as usual.

Just as I was about to leave, I heard a sound behind me. Immediately I spun around to see…

"Rachel?" I asked, even though she was standing right in front of me. "What are you doing here?" I heard the surprise in my own voice. I knew she knew where I lived, because we studied together sometimes. But it's not like I was going to read about the Revolutionary War in the summer, at least not by my own free will.

"Well, I dropped by after you didn't reply to any of my e-mails last night, or pick up any of my phone calls! Jeez, Percy! I though you had a run-in with a monster or something, but you're obviously fine. You could at least have, like, called—" She stopped talking as soon as she saw the bag in my hands. "Hey, what's up?"

I groaned internally. It would take way too long to explain the entire story, and I only had… I glanced at my watch… 10 more minutes to get to Providence Park.** (That's the hospital, remember?)** Crap.

"Well, see, I'm going on this one quest with Annabeth and Grover. It's urgent. I'd love to chat more, but I have to go." I blurted it all out in a rush. She blinked and asked,

"You're going on a quest?" I nodded quickly.

"I'd really like to tell you more, but I have to go…_now_," I said, stressing the now.

"Oh. Hey, maybe…" she started to say something, but I was already on my way down the stairway to the parking lot.

Just in time, I ran up the gray stairs into the hospital. On my way in, Dr. Heale stopped me. "Ah, Percy! Just the guy I wanted to see!" He seemed in higher spirits than the day before.

"Hi doc. What's going on?"

"Percy, I'm just coming from Annabeth's room. I see she still remembers yesterday."

"Yes, she does. But what happens when she forgets? When she forgets about Etgroftnig? What do we do then?"

"Don't worry about that at all. I've given her a bracelet that continuously sends very slight vibrations up her arm. It's programmed so she can remember basic skills, like how to eat, drink, talk, and breathe. In addition to that, she will remember three more things- one, that she is a demigod, and two, the skills of fighting. The last is perhaps the most important: she will always remember that she has Etgroftnig."

It was a bit of a relief that she wouldn't forget how to fight. I didn't want to imagine her against a monster without a clue of what she should do. But talking and eating? I was just terrified. What kind of a disease would have someone forget how to _breathe_?

"Well, Percy, you should go. Your quest starts in half an hour." I gave him a weak smile and continued to room 818.

When I got there I saw that Grover and Chiron were the only ones there.

"Hi. Where's Annabeth?"

Grover smirked. "Well, well, _somebody's_ eager to see Annabeth," he sing-songed.

I felt my ears turning red. "No- it's not-ugh, Grover!" Grover just laughed. He was about to say something when the door opened and Annabeth came in. She had a blue backpack strapped to her back, and she was dressed in a navy blue sweatshirt and dark jeans –clothes that wouldn't show much wear even if she was in a few battles. Once again I realized how far ahead she thought.

"Hi guys! When do we leave? You know, for the quest. The one that's today. That'll take us to the west coast."

Apparently when Annabeth got nervous, she talked a lot.

"Jeez Annabeth, calm down, we're leaving soon… I think," I looked at Chiron, who, in turn, looked at his watch.

"Soon, in fact, you are leaving now. Check your bags one more time to see if you have everything," Chiron suggested.

All three of us nodded and opened our bags. I looked once again and counted my nine shirts and two pairs of jeans. I saw the bag of drachmas and felt the wallet in my pocket. I felt Riptide, too. Yep, I was all good.

I looked up and saw that Annabeth and Grover were still checking their stuff. Grover was muttering, "Tin cans…apples…recyclables…cap…"

Annabeth was speaking quietly, too. She said, "Shirts, jeans, purse…" she muttered something indistinct here. "Knife…picture--" All of a sudden she cut off and blushed. In a second she looked up too and said, "I have everything I need."

Grover said, "Same here."

"All right then. As you may recall from your first quest, you were dropped off at a bus station," Chiron started.

"Oh, you mean the bus we blew up? Of course!" I said sarcastically. I mean, come on!

He ignored me. "Well, this time you will not be taking a bus. You will be driving yourself. We got the car cheap from Mount Olympus. However be careful; you do not want to anger the gods by mistreating their gift."

Before I knew it, we were ushered out of the hospital, into the parking lot, and into a white van. Here we were again, on a quest, once again across the vast country of America.

**I don't like this chapter too much; nothing much happened. Drop me a line, I'll update faster. Thanks! **

… **Oh, right, if Calypso seemed OOC, it's because she's starting to get over Percy. I'm not a big fan of Percy/Calypso. Sorry.**


	5. The Yellow Brick Road

**Eh, this one's even worse than the last one. Enjoy!**

_Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians._

"Oh my gods! Percy, can you _drive faster?_" Annabeth screeched. She looked so annoyed I flinched.

"Yeah man, you are going pretty slowly," came Grover's vote of support from the back seat. I hadn't even realized when he'd woken up. He still had the ability to fall asleep whenever he wanted; as soon as we sat in the 2009 Honda Accord, he passed out in the back on his bag. We were out of the city now, but there was slow traffic today. Hey, nobody likes going slow. Not even me.

"Oh, well, if you guys can magically unclog this freeway, I'll be glad to drive faster!" I snapped. "I don't like sitting in a car for hours on end, either!" This really wasn't like me. Usually, you wouldn't catch me snapping at people for no reason. I guess it was the battlefield reflexes combined with nerves.

I'd missed being on a quest, and I wasn't worried too much now. I was just afraid that we wouldn't have enough time to find vuretole. Or even find out what it was. And I was a still a little rattled about the prophecy— "_You shall unveil memories of past._" What memories? And who's past?

"_And only one shall you take."_ Did I even need to start on that? I mean, come _on_! I'll take one of what? And where do I take it? I swear we had the world's worst oracle. Well, we had the world's only oracle, but still!

And what was the deal with Etgroftnig and Vuretole? Almost nobody knows what the disease is, and absolutely nobody knows what the cure is. And here we were, two fifteen year olds and a thirty-one year old, trying to find Zeus-knows-what. Oh wait, not even Zeus knows! Yay, and now we'll all go eat chocolate cake and ice cream!

I decided to share what I was thinking with Grover and Annabeth. (Not the cake part.) "Hey, you guys, do you have any idea what vuretole is?"

Both Grover and Annabeth were silent for a while. Grover spoke first. "I don't know, maybe it's like some herb or something. Like a natural medicine."

Annabeth agreed... kind of, "Yeah… or maybe it's not what it seems like. It could be a word puzzle, like a crossword, or an acronym."

I smiled to myself. Both of them thought like they lived; Grover, who was into the wild immediately thought of herbs, and Annabeth-the-wise-girl immediately thought that it was some sort of puzzle for her oversized, overgrown, over-thinking brain to unravel.

"I'm sure it is, Annabeth," I said. Note the sarcasm oozing from my voice.

"Hey, it's possible!" she tried to protest, but even I could tell that it was weak. She'd rejected the idea almost as quickly as it came up. Just then the traffic cleared, and I stepped on the gas pedal. Grover was thrown at the back of the seat.

"Hey, Grover, didn't you put on your seatbelt?" I teased. Annabeth shot me a glare.

"Even if he had put on his seatbelt, at the rate we're going, if we crash, we'll become _teeny little_," (she whispered 'teeny' and 'little') "GREASE SPOTS!" she finished yelling. Almost took out my eardrums, too. "When I told you we needed to get to the west coast quickly, I meant living and not dead! This might be hard for your seaweed brain to understand, but I don't need to go to Charon's Ferry! GODS!"

"Okay! I don't know what you people want from me!" I fake sobbed. I wasn't really mad or sad, but it was still kind of funny to annoy the two of them.

"FRIES!" Grover yelled from the backseat.

"What? Grover, did you just say fries?" Annabeth looked a little confused, and very mad. _Oops._ Better back off now, G-man…

"Yes, I said fries. Do you smell that? It smells great! Turn onto that exit, Perce, please," Grover was practically begging. I was pretty hungry, and no doubt Annabeth would be, too. I glanced at the clock. _1:38_.

"Yeah, okay, let's have lunch," I decided, and the silver-blue Accord lurched off the freeway, and onto the exit.

*** {Time Skip} ***

We were on an old country road sooner or later; I never noticed when the paved roads became gravel. It didn't look like there had been anybody here for a decade. There was a billboard for that old movie, _Pretty Woman_. The one with Julia Roberts in it (And don't ask how I know. It involves 12 black candles, cayenne peppers, and a model brain).

I had the strangest sense of Déjà vu, like I'd been here before. The whole place looked a little creepy, I have to say. I mean, we'd been driving for a while now, and the time was around eight. Under the dark night, it looked like a…deserted ghost town. Weird.

"Hey g-guys? Is it just me, or have we been here, like, a long time ago?" Grover spoke from the backseat.

"Yeah, I have the same feeling-it's like this happened before, but not really. Like we we're looking at things from a different angle," Annabeth sounded a little creeped out, but not too scared. I was a little tense, and unless we watched Grover, it sounded like he'd eat our bags.

"It's so weird, I have the same feeling! I really don't like it. _What_ is going on?" I sounded kind of shake up, I guess.

Before any of us had time to say anything else, we came upon a sign. A very familiar sign.

A red, cursive, neon sign.

**Wow, it's 84 pages, literally! **

**On font size 72.**

**Ha Ha.**

**Yeah, nothing much happened here, but there's important foreshadowing. If you still don't get it, check out pages 149-188 of **_**The Lightning Thief**_**. Hopefully you'll figure it out!**

**Hopefully you know what to do… you don't? Oh, all you have to do is press that green button that says "Review this story/chapter". And then tell me what you thought. **

**About this chapter, I mean. Not your homework or anything else. **


	6. Medusa

**Wow! 96 reviews! Thank you all sooo much! **

**Okay, I know you don't care, just read the chapter.**

_Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. I don't own Scooby Doo, either. The 'Gang' owns him._

"Um, okay then," was the first thing that came out of my mouth. Yes, I know, stupid. But hey, I wasn't expecting to be at Aunty Em's. _Again_.

"Oh my gods!" Grover screeched from the back. I remembered from last time that Grover got pretty freaked out when we were here. He had reason to be; I recalled his Uncle Ferdinand with a shiver. Ferdy had gone looking for Pan, the god of the wild. Unfortunately, he never made it. Instead, he became a garden statue.

"Um, guys, tell me I'm hallucinating. Please tell me I'm hallucinating," Annabeth kept saying over and over.

"Uh, Annabeth, unless you're seeing the Eiffel Tower, you're not hallucinating."

"Oh good then, we're at The Sphinx in Egypt. Shut up, Percy! I was asking a rhetorical question. Gods! I know that we're at Aunty Em's. Sometimes you annoy the crap out of me," she snapped.

"Jeez, Annabeth, you really have mood swings," I commented. It looked like she was going to impale me with her knife, but Grover interrupted.

"Will you guys ever stop this nonsense?" No. "Does it ever occur to you that she may sense us here and _kill us_?!"

"No way, Grover! What tipped you off?" Annabeth was apparently going to beat Medusa to the punch and kill Grover herself. He started quaking.

Okay, okay! Cut it! Let's go see what's up inside. Move out, gang!" I did my best Freddy impersonation. You know, Scooby Doo?

(Shaggy was my personal favorite—he ate everything!—but after I met Grover, that's who he reminded me of. But I never did like how Freddy didn't date Velma. She was awesome! Which girl can take action and be incredibly smart at the same time?)

Don't answer that.

Well, okay. I was thinking about a children's cartoon in front of a monster's lair. Odd. Anyway, we stepped out of the car warily and sneaked towards the front door of the Garden Gnome Emporium. It looked exactly the same as last time, but something was off…oh. There was a hole in the roof.

_Oh, gods. Here we go again, _I thought, and with that we ran into the building.

The inside looked the same as before too. Except for rust on some tables and cobwebs in the corners, that is. Medusa wasn't there, but there were recent footprints in the dust. _Our_ footsteps echoed loudly in the almost empty building. I saw the girl holding the Easter egg basket who had seemed to stare at me last time.

"Um, guys, does anything give you the feeling that we're being watched right now?" I asked.

"Yeah…like someone's right above us…or right behind us…" Grover seriously was going to pee his pants sometime soon. I was nervous too, but I wasn't, like shivering either.

We all turned around at the same time, really slowly, like we were on a minefield.

"Guys! Keep your eyes on the ground!" hissed Annabeth. After that we were careful to keep our eyes trained on the ground. If Medusa was behind us, looking at her head on would turn us to stone.

I saw the hem of a black dress scraping on the floor first. I lifted my eyes higher…higher… the dress had a high neckline…which disappeared under a black veil.

Medusa was wearing her veil just like before.

"Well, hello, my dears. What brings you to my humble abode…again?" Her voice was like an old grandmother's, warm and kind. I felt like I should sit down and talk to her for a while, but my brain knew better. She was a monster who wanted to kill all three of us.

"As I recall, this is Perseus Jackson, Annabeth Chase, and Grover Underwood," she continued. "And we didn't have a very nice visit last time, did we?" She clucked her tongue remorsefully. "What a pity. You know, I never did get my picture. Let's take one now!" She cackled.

"Um, I don't think so," proclaimed Grover. "You killed my Uncle Ferdinand! I don't know how many other people you've killed, and we are not going to be three more! You need to be stopped!"

Medusa snarled wordlessly. She lunged after Grover. "Gang, split up!" I dove sideways and pulled out Anaklusmos. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Annabeth grab her knife and Grover brandish a long wood stick/club thing.

Grover attacked from behind, and Annabeth and I attacked from either side. Attack plan Macedonia.

Metal screeched against metal. I grabbed a gazing ball off a pedestal and turned so I could see Medusa. She had two long, sharp, and very painful black knives in hands. "Perseus Jackson, take your last breaths!" she screamed.

Last time she let me get close to her. Obviously that wouldn't be happening now. But I was better at swordplay than before, too. Still, the chances were 60-40%, in favor of Medusa.

She swung her right arm and tried to cut me in half. I raised Riptide just in time, and pushed back. She pressed forward, still not using her other arm. It went on like that for a while. Once in a while I'd see Grover whack her on the back or something. I had no idea where Annabeth was.

We were losing.

I didn't have long left. She could stab me or rake my face open or whatever at any second.

Grover thwacked the gorgon on the back. She ignored it and raised her left hand. I saw the strike coming, but I couldn't do a thing about it. I was holding off the other knife with Riptide; there was no way I could hold off this one, too. _This_ knife would plunge clean through me.

Only it didn't. It was something like two inches from connecting when it clanged against something. But there was nothing there…nothing that we could see, that is.

Annabeth.

She had put on her cap, so we couldn't see her. Her knife was blocking the attack. Of course, Medusa didn't know that. She was confused; she dropped the knife that I was holding off. I took my chance and rolled away.

Annabeth's cap flew off, and Medusa fought with her full on. Annabeth was a strong fighter; she could hold her own for a while. I sneaked behind Medusa and raised my sword so it was horizontal to her neck.

I swung the sword, and she disappeared with a _shlock!_. Her head fell to the ground. The veil was a few feet away. I grabbed it and wrapped the head.

Annabeth, Grover, and I turned to face each other. "So what do we do now?" I asked tentatively.

Grover looked grossed out. "We need to destroy her head somehow, don't we?"

"Yeah," said Annabeth, "But I'm pretty sure…let's head back to the car." She took off without waiting for us.

When we caught up with her, she was staring at the screen of her Daedalus Laptop. "Um, Annabeth, what are you doing?" I asked.

"I think…I think we can bring these people back," she said. "Medusa's victims."

"What? How?" Grover sounded pretty excited.

"We need to burn her head and mix the ashes with water. Then we need to sprinkle a little on every statue."

"I don't think you guys realize this, but if we wake a grizzly bear, it'll eat us," I said sarcastically.

"So we won't wake the animals," Annabeth said.

"And we have no idea how long these people have been this way. If we wake, like, Laura Ingalls Wilder, then won't she be all 'what's going on'?" I continued.

She hesitated. "Hang on, let me read further."

Silence for the next few minutes. "I got it!" she yelled. "If they are supposed to be dead by now, then they'll just disintegrate. And if they aren't, then they'll become whatever age they should be and go wherever is best for them."

"Okay," I said. "If you're sure, then let's go."

We turned, but Grover stopped us. "Guys, its eleven o'clock now. And I'm hungry. Let's eat something, get some sleep, and then tomorrow we can do all this."

I glanced at Annabeth, and she shrugged. "That sounds okay. Come on, let's go find the snack bar."

We ran into the building and towards the back. Annabeth started looking around the kitchen.

"Annabeth, can you even cook?" I asked. She glared at me.

"I'll have you know I cook very well. In fact, I won this award thingy for cooking at my school."

"They must've had bad cooks at your school then," said Grover.

"What did you say, goat boy?" Annabeth asked.

"Annabeth, I've had your cooking before. And, no offence, it wasn't all that great," Grover answered.

"Grover, that was _one time_! I mean, I was seven years old and it was a campfire!"

They kept arguing like that. Neither one noticed when I walked into the kitchen and started the deep fryer. But they noticed when they smelled the burgers.

"Percy, what are you doing?" asked Annabeth.

"Cooking. Since if I waited for you two to shut up, we'd all starve," I answered.

"Yes, and if we eat your cooking, we might as well poison ourselves," Grover and Annabeth ganged up on me.

"You realize that I cook dinner for myself, like, every day, right?" Grover and Annabeth seemed pretty surprised by that one, so I continued explaining. "Back when I went to Meriwether, the teachers used to punish be by making me cook. They _said_ that it was a 'creative outlet' for my 'anger issues'. Personally, I think it's 'cause the school cook sucked."

I finished making the food: cheeseburgers. We had soda from the soda fountain, and Grover had a few plastic trays.

"Do you guys want to check out the upstairs?" Annabeth asked.

"What upstairs?" I asked.

"The one that's upstairs, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth said slowly, like I was a two year old.

"Oh, _that_ upstairs! I thought you were talking about the upstairs that's downstairs!" I said sarcastically.

"You guys are giving me migraines again," Grover pointed out.

"Whatever. Come on, I'm sure that there will be a bedroom or two here, let's go see," Annabeth said.

We climbed the oak stairs. Upstairs, there were five rooms. We opened the first door. It was an old closet that had an old cash register with something like a hundred dollars in it. "How come we didn't find this place the last time we were here, huh? The money would've helped us on our last quest." I complained.

"Well, it can help us on this one. Now let's check out the other rooms."

We left the closet and opened another door. This was a bathroom, with plain, cream-colored walls and a shower.

The next door was locked.

The next rooms were two bedrooms. One's walls were peach and one's walls were blue.

The last door was another bathroom. This one was tiled black and white, and it had a shower, too.

"Let's stay here tonight. I'll take the peach room; you guys take the blue room. Tomorrow we'll make a plan to really start this quest," said Annabeth and walked into her room.

Well, it was the next morning. I let Annabeth and Grover have the first showers because I would get hot water guaranteed. Ah, the joys of being a child of Poseidon.

I turned on the T.V. and was just watching this one thing on the gods. It was hilarious all the times the mortals got anything wrong. Once the guy said that Athena and Poseidon were, like, _into_ each other. I just about died laughing.

Just then Annabeth stepped in the room. "Um, Percy?" Annabeth asked.

"Yeah?"

"What happened last night? **(A/N Not that way! Pervs!)** I mean, I guess there was a fight, right? But I forgot..."

It was Etgroftnig.

I told her what happened, her idea, and all. She nodded. "I'm sorry. It's just that…"

"Hey, Annabeth, we're friends, right? Anytime you forget, ask me. I don't mind."

"Seaweed Brain, I'm going to forget that you said that, too," she pointed out, but she smiled anyway.

Grover cleared his throat from behind us, and I about jumped out of my skin.

"Sorry. I wasn't interrupting something, was I?" He asked.

"No, no, you didn't interrupt anything!" I said. He said something to the affect of 'a pity, that.' I ignored him and told them I was going to make breakfast.

We had a completely healthy and nutritious breakfast of Cheese Puffs (they were great), and then we decided what to do next.

"We should save them all!" Grover said. "It's the right thing to do."

"He's right," Annabeth agreed. "But it would take too long to sprinkle water on all of them. We need to keep going with our quest.

"Uh, guys?" I raised my hand. "I can, like, spray it over everything here, remember?"

A smile broke across Grover's face. "Yeah, you can! C'mon, Annabeth, you have to agree!"

She smiled and nodded. "Okay. But we need to do this quickly."

The head was just where we left it last night—on the kitchen table. We took it outside and started a fire on the patio/walkway. In a second the flames were leaping.

"Oh gods of Olympus, we ask for you to accept this offering and help us to avenge these people who were wronged," Annabeth said.

The flames glowed a little bit brighter. We took that as a good sign and placed the head in the flames, taking care not to look at it.

There was a flash and the fire had gone, taking the head with it. The ashes were left under the wood. We scraped them into this jar thing and took it inside.

"Let's add the water," Grover suggested.

"Wait. No, I have a better idea," I said. I ran back outside, Annabeth and Grover following me. I cleared the fireplace and put the ashes in there.

I called to the ocean. The tug in my gut began, pleasant at first then painful. The fireplace filled and started to overflow.

"STOP!" I shouted. (I'm sure the other two thought I'd lost my mind.) The water cut off. I squeezed my eyes shut, willing pressure into the fireplace.

"Annabeth, Grover, come here," I said. They did as I asked, and I gripped their arms.

I added pressure to the water…more…

The pressure built up until the water inside exploded, raining all over us. The three of us remained dry, me because I was the son of Poseidon, the other two because I was touching them.

Immediately, there was a sound of cracking all around us, a sound of shattering. The sound of people coming back to life.

In another second there was a flash of grey light. I guessed that everyone had gone wherever they were supposed to be. There would be nobody left in the place except us.

I turned to face my friends. "Come on, guys. Let's grab our stuff and head to the car."

In a half hour, we were sitting in the car, same as yesterday: Me in the driver's seat, Annabeth in shotgun, Grover passed out in the back.

"So where do we head now?" I asked.

"South," she decided. "South to Maryland."

**2,537 words…not counting disclaimer and author's notes…**

**Wow. This is the longest chapter I have ever written. I was nervous writing this chapter; this was the first action chapter I've ever written. **

**(I think you could tell by Percy's spazzy thoughts in the first part of the chapter.) **

**So please review and tell me what you thought!**


	7. Pallas

**No, there was not a time warp! Yes, this is an update! I know, it's really quick (for me), but it's to thank you guys for getting my review into the hundreds!**

_Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. I don't own Starbucks._

Recap: (You shouldn't need one, but whatevs) Percy, Annabeth, and Grover have been on their quest, and have just defeated Medusa and freed her victims. Now they're driving south to Maryland.

"So where do we go now?" I asked

"South," she decided. "South to Maryland."

***

Well, we've been driving south for about five hours now. We've passed so many freakin' toll booths I'd be happy if I never saw one again. I mean, how much money do people spend on those stupid things every year? If America is the land of the free, then why in Hades' pants do we have to pay money to drive into another state?!

"_Percy, turn!_" screamed Grover.

"What? Oh, crap!" I said. I swerved, narrowly avoiding the truck in front of us and waking Annabeth from behind us. (We stopped a while back in Newark so Grover could come up front and Annabeth could get some sleep.) She fell into the little area between the front seats and the back, and came up cursing.

"Percy Jackson, take that exit right now," she said. Completely calm, with icy black eyes and a murderous look on her face, her nose all scrunched up. I shivered sarcastically, but took the exit.

"Stop in front of that Starbucks," Annabeth ordered. I did, just to see what she would tell me to do next. "Now open the door and step out of that seat."

"Why?" I asked.

"So I can sit, turn the keys in the ignition, and drive without killing us all."

"No. I don't wanna," I puffed out my cheeks like a little kid and pouted. Grover exploded in laughter. Annabeth got even angrier.

"Percy Freakin' Jackson, get your freakin' butt out of that seat right this freakin' second!"

"I _said_ I _don't_ WANNA!" I screamed. I was about to crack up but I held it.

"Percy if you do not get out of your seat right now, I'll kill you!"

"And I'll help her. Believe me, it won't be a painless death, either," came another voice, and I pretty much jumped out of my skin. I twisted around in the seat really quickly, believe me.

A grinning guy stared back at me, holding Annabeth's NYY cap. "I've been sitting here for a half hour, and believe me Percy, it looks like you guys are going to Hades fast."

"Nico? What are you doing here?" I asked.

"I got bored. I wanted to do something exciting. I decided to sneak away and join your quest. Of course, that wasn't too hard. I just shadow traveled here," he smiled even wider.

I nodded. He'd explained shadow traveling to me one of the times he'd visited me. "Wow, Nico! Man, it's great to have you here!" I said. I meant it, too. Nico was a great kid; you had to get past his emo/goth look. He knew a lot about the legends and all, and he was an amazing fighter.

"Yeah, yeah. So, are you trying to pass the prophecy on to me? 'Cause that's what it looks like from your 'amazing' driving 'skills'! I can drive better," Nico teased.

Nico had really lightened up. He wasn't all…doom and gloom and depressed anymore. Something had really changed him, and I thought it was Danielle. Danielle was a daughter of Apollo, about seven years old, who he'd found on the streets in Nevada. He took her to Camp Half-Blood, and he got attached along the way.

I was glad that he had the chance to be close to somebody; the only family he'd ever really had was Bianca. When she died, it was a huge blow to him. He still missed Bianca, and nobody could ever take her place. But Danielle was like another sister; a younger one. She really brought out his paternal side. I was happy that she made it to Camp, too.

"Oh, give me a break. I don't drive that badly. And you have practice! How many times did you drive getting Elle to camp?"

Elle was what he called Danielle. Either that or 'Miss Princess'.

"Hmm…that's a tough one. I remember that one car…" he smiled dreamily. "Poor guy, I hope he didn't like that convertible too much…"

Grover and Annabeth were watching us talk.

"Nico, how's Elle?" Annabeth asked. Elle had taken a liking to Annabeth immediately. (Then again, I doubt any little kid could not like Annabeth.) She hung around Annabeth all the time, but Annabeth never got annoyed, the way I would have. Heck, when the incoming campers hang around me, I get way annoyed. Annabeth just took it in stride. Now Elle was a mini architect. And none of the other Apollo campers were happy. At all.

"She's fine. She keeps talking about how she has 'limited resources' and how the rest of the Apollo campers are 'completely mindless'. Other than that, it's going great," he glared at Annabeth. "Did you have to tell her that classical music is supposed to be 'exciting, yet peaceful'? Now she keeps bothering everybody in the cabin!"

"Well, I'm sorry, but the Apollo campers aren't very good musicians!"

"Well, neither is Grover!"

"Hey!" Grover looked offended.

"Hey is for horses, Grover," Annabeth said.

This got all of them started in a war of words. They were better than cable. Or Hephaestus-TV—before it went all reality programming, of course.

I cleared my throat. "If you guys are done, can we start now? Annabeth, Grover, fill Nico in on what happened."

Grover sniffed. "Nico? Oh is that that one guy who smells like dead people?"

Nico looked like he was going to kill Grover. Before he could say something, Annabeth interrupted. "Hey, stop! I'll fill you in, Nico. Grover, you have a time-out."

"I'm thirty one! I haven't had time outs since I was, like, ten!" he protested.

"Well, you will be in a time out as long as you act like one. Let's get some coffee and food and stuff. We can talk in the café," I said. "Annabeth, can you bring your laptop?" She nodded.

"Okay, then, let's go."

***

10 minutes later, we were sitting around a table inside Starbucks. I was sipping my coffee, Annabeth was pulling her hair into a messy knot, Nico was eating a Toffee Almond Bar **(A/N I love those! Go try one!)**, and Grover was eating his wax paper.

Annabeth filled Nico in on what happened. "We fought Medusa last night. Today, we burned the head, and freed all her victims. We were driving to Annapolis, but then I decided that we should go west instead. And that's about it," she finished.

"Oooh! Oooh! No, it isn't! This morning, I walked into the living room when Percy and Annabeth were having a 'moment'!" Grover said.

"We were not! Annabeth just forgot what happened last night, and asked me! Grover," I said, "I hate you."

"_Sure_, Percy…we believe you," Nico smirked.

"Nico," Annabeth said.

"Yeah?"

"Shut. Up. Right. Now. Or. Else."

"Yes'm," Is it just me, or did Nico actually look scared?

"Percy, what did you need the computer for?" Annabeth asked.

I didn't answer, just turned it so it was facing me. I opened the Internet (thanks, Hermes!) and went to Google Maps. "We need a map."

"I came prepared," Nico started waving a book of maps around. "This is a road map of the entire United States, section by section."

"Let me see that," Annabeth snatched the thing right out of poor Nico's hand. She started studying it.

"Yeah, that's great, but we need _directions_," I said.

"Percy, to get directions, we need to have an address. Which we don't have," pointed out Grover. I frowned. That _was_ a problem; we couldn't just type in 'Annapolis, MD to West Coast,' after all.

"We need to IM Dr. Heale. Immediately," Annabeth said. Nico was going to say something, but he never got the chance. Because right then, the roof exploded.

***

We looked up into a hideous, scarred, _very _big face. I heard someone scream. Looking around, I saw that it was Annabeth. That right there set me quaking. Annabeth doesn't scream unless there's a spider nearby. Ever. And if she was screaming, then…well, it was either the end of the world, or pretty darn close.

"Annabeth! What is it?" hissed Nico.

"It-it's Pallas," she whispered.

"Oh, Styx! Pallas? What in Hades do we do now?" Grover asked.

That's where they lost me. "Pallas? Isn't that the first name of Athena, or something?"

"Seaweed Brain, Pallas was a gigantes—a giant—who Athena killed in the First Titan War. She then took his name. It's his skin that makes Aegis- the original one, Zeus's version, not Thalia's, I mean."

"She killed him…so I'm guessing…it's not easy for heroes to kill him?" I asked backing up slowly.

"Yep."

"We have to—Grover, duck!" screamed Nico.

Pallas launched a flamethrower at Grover, which, in turn, launched us into action. Grover ducked like Nico said, and the fire missed his skin by inches. I rolled to the other side of the room. Nico and Annabeth ran to front, close to Pallas. Still, there was no way to get rid of him. He was at least seventy feet tall. And even if we stacked one on top of the other, we would only be twenty feet at the most.

"How in Hades do we get rid of him?" I yelled. Just then, Pallas threw a sword blindly into the room, and it headed straight for the laptop. I knew how important it was to Annabeth; it was given to her by her half-brother Daedalus, and it was filled with ideas of his that he was never able to do. There was nothing else like it in the whole world.

"No! Not that!" she screamed. Trying to get there in time, she all but flew to it. Still, she was way too far. I was closer; I drew and used Riptide to slide the laptop under the table.

"Annabeth, I got it," I said. She flashed me a grateful smile.

"Thanks Percy," By now she was only a few inches away from me; I probably would have said something like 'um uh ga' but I never had the chance—because right then Pallas grabbed Nico and lifted him forty feet into the air.

***

"Nico!" I yelled. He was stabbing desperately at the monster's hand with his stygian iron sword, but it wasn't enough. This monster was too large.

"We need to destroy the monster," I said.

"I think we can use electricity," came Annabeth's voice.

"No need. But I need to get Nico down," Grover said. Annabeth and I looked at him in confusion. "Believe me, guys! I can take care of this."

I looked at Annabeth and she nodded. I shrugged. "Might as well," I said. And then I started climbing Pallas's leg.

***

Now, I would not advice you to climb a monster's leg. Pallas was dressed relatively normally—jeans and a shirt—but not all monsters were that considerate. And I wasn't that interested in staring at a monster's whitey-tighties.

Pallas started hopping around like a bunny on a chocolate high. Or worse, an ADHD bunny on a chocolate high. I was having a really hard time hanging on to his jeans. Eventually I just stabbed the thick material and pulled myself up hand by hand.

I have no idea how long I kept going like that, maybe ten or fifteen minutes. It really wasn't that much worse than the lava wall at camp. I noticed when the dark denim changed to white cotton, and I knew I reached his shirt. (By the way, where would he get clothes that big? You couldn't just walk into the XL section in a store and find clothes _that_ big.)

Nico was still flailing around, attacking Pallas. Huge beads of ichor dripped onto the floor, pooling with the ones already there. I looked down at Annabeth and Grover fighting Pallas and felt a little dizzy. _This _son of Poseidon is not meant for heights. They make me sick.

"Nico!" I screamed.

"Percy! His weak point is at the elbow! Attack his left arm and elbow!" He yelled instructions at me. Still I remembered what Grover had said: _Get Nico down. _I had a feeling that he knew what he was talking about.

I didn't answer Nico, I just joined him in stabbing Pallas. I fought my way around his stomach (yes, I know this sounds weird) to his left arm when it became clear that we were losing. I stabbed blindly near his elbow.

"Aaaaaaaaagh!" he screamed in agony. It was the first sound I'd heard him make, and hopefully it was the last. He dropped Nico. Luckily he landed on a sofa in the corner of the coffee shop. I had to get down from here.

All of a sudden, I remembered that when I was little I'd always wanted to slide down a stair banister. Maybe it would work…?

I decided to take the chance. Crossing my fingers (not literally) I let my clench on the shirt loosen and slid down, down, down, in front of Grover's feet.

Looking around, I had to smile. It was really uncommon for…well a son of Poseidon to survive a height like that. "Okay, G-man, do your thing," I said.

He nodded, and put his mouth to his pipes. He played an eerie melody, like a creek flowing over stones and the hum of animals around a carcass in the forest.

Roots began to grow around Pallas. He roared in anger and thrashed around. But he just fell onto the floor, and Grover's magic took hold. Bark began to grow around his massive body, branches sprouted from over his head. Within a minute, Pallas had been completely encased by a tree.

And now we had a horizontal maple tree in a Starbucks in Maryland.

Panting, all of us looked around. The building was completely trashed, slimed up like the inside of a dragon's mouth. The servers weren't there any longer either; they had probably run out soon after the roof collapsed.

"We have to go now," said Nico.

"Thanks for the information, Captain Obvious," Annabeth said. "Come on, let's go!"

***

We ran out of the café like Hades, believe me. We piled into the car and peeled out of the parking lot. Nobody said anything for a while.

In half an hour, Nico complained, "Percy, how come you get to drive again?"

"Well, because I drive the fastest, I'm the oldest, not counting Grover, and this is _my_ quest!"

And that's how the next hour or two went—bickering.

************************************************************PLEASE READ! VERY IMPORTANT!***********************************************************

**You may have noticed I did some major clean up. Now this is the seventh chapter, not the tenth; I combined a few of the shorter chapters. This means that now every chapter (excluding the first) is at least 1,000 words. The story is still all here, just in a smaller package.**

**By the way, not counting author's notes and recap or disclaimer, this chap was 2,397 words!**

**Review, please!**

**~Clara **


	8. Author's Note

Hello. This is an author's note. I just wanted to thank the following:

Kareena, (**Karmabear 2050**) and Rashmi, (**xxLosAngelesAngelxx**) for reviewing and bearing my [extremely long and boring] PMs,

**101warriorsrox** for keeping the conversation going,

**Jaguar1223** for reviewing my 1st story and for talking about cookies,

**Adonai63** and **Filmy Furry** for being constant reviewers,

**Hussein**, for making me laugh,

**Anna145**, for letting me beta her first chapter,

* * *

for taking my Awesome Points and…um…SPOILER, so I can't say,

**Hippocampi1553** for giving me the first review to Accident,

**Kyron56 **for being my first reviewer of all time and first reviewer of _What happens when Annabeth falls off a cliff!_

**All the people I forgot**, 'cause you are awesome,

And of course these three guys on my bus, initials: **A.G.**, **C.A.**, and **E.M.**, for annoying the crap out of me (not in a good way) and unintentionally making me take my anger out by writing.

Thanks for bothering to read this!

~Clara/Nikki/Jekyll/Hyde…

…Hee hee.


	9. Demeter and Persephone

**I can't think of anything to bore…er, entertain you with…**

**Ooh! Anna145! I'd love to look at your work! Please do send me your plot line! But you'll have to get an account first...  
And Silverheart, my new friend ;D, yes, I do feel like that.**

**Thanks to everyone for their reviews! I love you all! (Like friends, of course ;D)**

_Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians._

"Percy?" Nico called sleepily. He'd been sleeping in the back, right next to Grover, something neither had been too happy about. Neither had forgiven each other for the insults yet. Still, Annabeth was not going to let Nico sleep on _her_ lap, and I wasn't going to stop driving, and Grover didn't have a good weapon (he lost).

I gritted my teeth. Nico thought it was really funny to annoy me. I thought otherwise.

"Nico? Can I ask you a question? Why do you find it impossible to not annoy me for more than ten minutes?"

"Seriously, Percy, listen to my idea! Let's stop by, like, Wal-Mart and get one of those mini DVD players! We can totally watch a movie," said Nico. I cracked up.

"Why are you laughing?" He glared at me.

"Dude, since when do you say 'totally'?" I couldn't stop laughing. Annabeth whacked me on the head.

Nico looked sheepish. "Elle rubbed off on me."

I had to smile.

***

Two hours later, we were sitting in the car, somewhere in Philadelphia. The reason? We were out of gas. And it was all Nico's fault. I had given up to them an hour ago, and decided to crash in the back. Grover was sitting up front, because he said he didn't want to sit next to another sleeping person. So Annabeth had to come sit back here. (Was it just my imagination, or did she look a little pleased?)

So Nico had been driving for a while now. Even though I told him, _repeatedly_, to check the gas level once in a while, he 'forgot'. And now here we were, sitting somewhere in the Appalachian Mountains, miles into the wilderness, with nowhere to go.

"Percy, chillax! I'll walk back to the gas station we passed a while ago! Dude, you'll get white hairs soon…" his voice trailed off as I pointed to the white stripe already in my hair.

"Okay, so you already have white hairs. Big deal."

"Nico, I'm not really mad. It's just that we have to get to the coast soon…"

"I know. That's why I'm going, _with Grover_, to the gas station," he said a little sheepishly.

"What? Why do I have to…?" Grover started. Nico hauled him out of the car and said something. I couldn't hear what he said, but I saw Grover smile slowly. Anything that would make him smile like the Grinch when he figured out how to ruin Christmas…well, I just had a bad feeling that I wouldn't like what was going on here.

They started off, but I yelped, "Hey, wait!" Grover opened the door.

"What?"

"I can't let you guys go alone," I started to open the door, but Nico held it closed.

"If you come, then who'll watch Annabeth?" he asked, pointing. I looked down. Annabeth had fallen asleep, using her wadded up blue sweatshirt as a pillow.

"Then you stay here, and I'll go," I pointed out.

"If I stay here, then she'll wake up and yell at me for letting you guys go alone," Nico said.

"Grover?" I pleaded. As nice as getting staying in the car sounded, I didn't want Nico or Grover to get hurt or something.

"No way, man. I'm not going to stay here," he said.

I sighed. If we all went, then Annabeth could be attacked or something. If I didn't go, then if Nico or Grover could be attacked, and I'd feel guilty; and if we woke up Annabeth…

…it would not be pretty.

"Fine," I groaned. "But hurry back and iris-message if there's a problem."

"Geez, Percy. We're not kids!" Nico yelled.

"Well, sorry!" Nico rolled his eyes and slammed the door. In a moment both of them were gone and Annabeth and I were left in the car.

***

"Um, Annabeth?" I asked. Nico and Grover had been gone for half an hour, and were supposed to be back any moment. Annabeth was still sleeping.

It was nice to see her sleep. She didn't look all tough; she seemed like a little kid—something she'd never really had a chance to be in real life.

After staring at Annabeth's face for a while (yes, I know how creepy that sounds) I guess I must have fallen asleep too, because the next thing I knew I was waking up. Next to me, Annabeth was awake, smirking at me.

"Hey, why is it that whenever I wake up, you're always there, staring at me?" I complained. "The first time I woke up at Camp, you were feeding me popcorn pudding and liquid chocolate chip cookies. Then when Lu—that pit scorpion attacked me, you were there, feeding me nectar and ambrosia again. I can go into a million other times!"

She was watching me amusedly. "Well, maybe that's because somebody needs to be the adult in this relationship!"

Before I said anything, she continued. "Percy…we defeated Pallas yesterday, didn't we?"

I got it—Etgroftnig again. "We defeated Pallas, and then Nico drove the car for a while. Then he forgot to check the gas level, and now he and Grover are at a gas station, buying gas."

"Oh. Percy…thanks."

"For what?" I asked.

There was a flash of cranberry red light and another of golden yellow, and then in front of us were two goddesses.

"Lady Demeter, Lady Persephone! What…I mean, did you need anything?" asked Annabeth.

Demeter-I guess she was Demeter-smiled kindly and said, "No."

There was a minute or two of silence.

"Oh, to Hades with this!" exclaimed Persephone. "No offense, husband. Percy, Annabeth, we noticed that you were having difficulty on this quest. That is why we have come to offer you a gift."

I was about to say 'Sure, thanks,' but Annabeth said something first.

"That's nice of you, my ladies, but are you sure that you want nothing in return?"

Persephone smiled sneakily. "Now that you mention it, there is _one_ thing…" I groaned under my breath. I had a feeling that this was so not going to go well.

"There is a party being held in my honor tomorrow. A Halloween party," continued Demeter.

"Isn't your holiday Thanksgiving?" I asked.

She waved a hand dismissively. "Melinoe doesn't care for Halloween, my dear, so I took it. Anyway, you, Annabeth, Nico, and Grover must attend it."

"What kind of a party is it?" asked Annabeth.

"It's a masquerade. And you _must_ attend or you will not be favored by the gods."

In yet another flash, the two disappeared, and in their places were Grover and Nico, with dumbfounded looks on their faces.

Annabeth started telling them, "We have to go to a masquerade, or else 'we will not be favored by the gods'. Meaning we'll be cursed.

"How do we go to a masquerade?!" yelled Nico. "We don't have masks or costumes!"

Grover nodded. "And it's not like we can just go to a store and pick up a few costumes, either."

"Um, why not?" I asked.

"Because, my dear Percy," said Annabeth. "We need to watch our spending!"

"So then what do we do?"

Annabeth smiled. "I don't know what you guys are going to do. I know what _I'm_ going to do." Without another word, she set off into the forest.

"HEY WAIT! Annabeth, where are you going?" I yelled.

"Don't follow me!" she shouted back. Soon the forest closed around her and the tree of us looked at each other, hoping that a few costumes would drop out of the sky.

**If you celebrate it, happy Halloween, everybody! And guess what? If you press that MAGICAL green button and send me a review, you'll get lots of free candy…and possibly another update TODAY!**


	10. Masquerade

**I did my Oral Report on Miguel de Cervantes today. If you don't know who that is, I'll give you a hint…**

_**Wikipedia…**_

**By the way, links to all outfits in this chapter are on my profile.**

_Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. _

And so there we were, three guys sitting in a clearing in the Appalachian Mountains, hoping for a few costumes to drop out of the sky. And unfortunately, it was not happening.

Grover broke the silence. "We need to find costumes of some sort _soon_! I don't know about you guys, but I don't like being cursed!" He wailed.

"We need to talk to the source," said Nico.

"Huh?" Yes, that was me. As usual, I asked a dumb question. I half expected Annabeth to roll her eyes and 'Seaweed Brain' me, but then I remembered she was off in the woods. "Hey, I wonder what Annabeth is doing," I thought aloud.

Nico smirked at me. "_Somebody_ likes Annabeth," he singsonged. My face went red.

"Will you guys lay off? I don't like Annabeth. Like that, I mean. I mean, we're friends…" Grover chuckled and I shut up.

"Whatever. We need to talk to Demeter," declared Nico. "After all, she is the one whose party it is."

"How do we contact her?" Grover asked. "It's not like we can drive back to the Empire State Building."

"IM."

"You can IM a god?" I asked.

"Well, duh! Iris is the messenger of the gods."

"I thought that was Hermes," I said.

Nico and Grover both groaned. "Percy," Nico explained. He spoke really slowly, like I was a little kid. "Hermes does packages. Iris does direct messages. And Hermes is male, so he's a god. Iris is female; she's a goddess."

"Whatever," I shrugged it off. "But how do we get a rainbow?"

Nico ran to the car and pulled out a CD. Flashing in the sunlight, rainbows flew off the metal. I saw what he meant and pulled out a drachma. I threw it into the CD (it sounds weird, I know), while yelling, "Oh goddess, accept my offering!" A screen appeared in front of us and I asked, "The Goddess Demeter."

***

Persephone's face peered through the mist. She looked excited at first, but then bored. "Oh, it's you. I thought you might be my hairstylist. What do you want?" she asked.

"Persephone, we have a question. What kind of party do we have to go to?" Nico asked. Very, very rudely.

"I told you, it's a masquerade." Apparently she didn't really like Nico. I could see why; I guess she didn't like her husband having kids with someone else.

"Yes, but is there some, like, dress code or something?" questioned Grover.

She smiled. "I'm glad you asked, my dear. It's a famous couples party," she said.

"A WHAT?" I screamed.

"Toodles!" she slashed through the mist and we were left alone.

"What the heck?" I yelled. "We didn't have costumes, and now we don't even have dates for this stupid party!"

"Well, Grover and I don't. You do, if you know what I mean," Nico smirked. I must have looked blank, because Nico sighed. "Annabeth, smart one."

"Will you guys stop?" I said. My face felt warm and probably resembled a large tomato. "She doesn't like me like that."

"Aha! You said she! So _you_ like _her_!" yelled Grover.

"No, I mean…" I tried again.

"Percy," Nico said. I shut up again. "We know you like her. Ask her out."

"Oh, yeah," I scoffed. "I'll go up and be, like, 'We're on a quest with limited time, we need to get to the West Coast fast, go out with me.' No. Way."

Nico sighed again. "We'll have to deal with your insecurities later. We need to get dates and costumes for this thing. So what do we do now?"

Before I could ask Nico about my 'insecurities', Grover spoke. "Um, maybe we could talk to the goddess of _beauty _and _love_, Aphrodite!" said Grover.

"I don't want to talk to her again!" I said. "Last time it was kind of embarrassing."

"Suck it up." Nico said. Then he started to intone "O goddess Aphrodite, we need your help."

She showed up in an instant, walking out of the woods like she'd gone for a walk in the forest or something. Aphrodite was gorgeous as usual, but she seemed annoyed this time. "What?"

"We need dates and costumes for this party…" Grover wasted no time telling Aphrodite what we needed. Well, after he ogled for a while, that is.

"So what do you want me to do?" She snapped.

"Um, if you could, that is, if you could send Juniper…"

"Fine. You and Juniper will go as…hmmm…Bert and Ernie."

"WHAT?!"

"I'm kidding! You can go as modern Adam and Eve."

Grover nodded, but muttered something about 'overdone'. She ignored it.

"Now Nico, my dear, you can go as…ohh…hmm…as Romeo and Juliet."

"I'm going as both?"

"No, no," Aphrodite said, not seeming to notice that Nico was mocking her. "You go with a daughter of Hermes, Megan. Your costumes are in the car, and your dates will be arriving at three. Is that all? Good. Now if you'll excuse me…" She turned to leave.

"Wait!" I yelped. "You forgot me!"

"Oh, yes, Percy," she said. "You'll go with Rachel Dare."

My face felt, well, like a tomato again. "I have to?" I asked, before I thought better of it. Nico and Grover would never let me live this down.

"Ha! You should've seen the expression on your face, dear. No, you are _not _going to go with that redhead. You go with Annabeth. And you two can be the famous dancing couple, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers."

"We can't dance!"

She frowned like she was really annoyed. "Well, too bad! Deal with it!" With a snap of her fingers, she disappeared.

Nico, Grover and I stared at the car. We didn't really want to see the clothes, but, well, no time like the present, right? So we started walking towards the car.

When we opened the door, we saw three costumes—or rather, three white garment bags. Each was labeled in huge, pink, scrawly script that took me a minute to figure out. One said 'Percy', one said 'Grover', and the last said 'Nico'.

"I'm scared," said Grover.

And then we each opened our bags. My costume was a black coat, a black bow tie, a black hat like they wore in the 30's, and black pants with black shoes. So colorful, but hey, I wasn't complaining. To my left, Grover sighed in relief. To my right, Nico was turning a little…green.

Grover's was an olive kind of green shirt and brown dress pants. He had brown flip-flops and a belt, too. It was okay—not too over the top.

That was the exact opposite of Nico's costume. The picture of that costume should have been in the dictionary next to "overdone". He had a white shirt and a red vest on top of it. Under that, he had breeches and boots, with a long, silver-coloured, plastic sword. He started hyperventilating.

"Nico, buddy, calm down. It's just one party," I said nervously.

"Yeah. Yeah, calm," he started breathing hard, trying to calm down and not cut the costume into pieces using his _real_ stygian iron sword.

"We need to live on this quest, Nico. And we need to get to the west coast kind of quickly."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. That's why I haven't killed the thing yet."

Something occurred to me. "Hey, guys, there aren't any costumes here for the girls." Nico and Grover looked at each other and shrugged.

"It's 2:50. They should be here soon," said Nico.

And as promised they were there in ten minutes, walking out of the forest like Aphrodite had.

Juniper stepped out first. She was wearing a short green dress with brown tights and copper high heels underneath. She had on a green ring with a brown snake on it. She was wearing a silver necklace that had a snake twisted into the shape of a heart, and she was wearing her light brown hair clipped up.

Next came a girl I'd seen around camp, but I didn't know. Probably Megan, I guessed. She was wearing a dark red dress, the exact shade of Nico's vest, and black high heels. Her dark brown hair was twisted up onto her head. I heard him whistle quietly and elbowed him in the ribs.

Annabeth still hadn't showed…but I heard a rustling in the bushes behind the two girls. And then Annabeth stepped out of the foliage.

I could feel my jaw drop. I closed my mouth and stared. She was wearing a blue sleeveless dress that looked like it was silk or satin or something. She had on these low heels that attached with a blue strap thing. Instead of her camp bead necklace, she was wearing a necklace that had an 'A' dangling off of it. Her hair was teased into tight curls around her face. She had on blue-and-silver earrings, too.

All three girls walked over to us. Juniper strangled—oh, was she hugging him?—Grover, Megan smiled shyly at Nico, and Annabeth looked at me.

"Grover!" screeched Juniper.

"Hi, I'm Megan. You must be Nico, right?" asked Megan.

"You need to change into your costume," said Annabeth flatly. She seemed to notice me staring at her and frowned a little bit. "Didn't you think I could look like a girl?" she asked, like I was, I don't know…amazed by her. Well, I was, but not in a bad way. In a good way.

"No! That's not what…I mean, you look really good," I stammered. She blushed and said, "Thanks." **(A/N Ooooh! Bad grammar skills on my part [there should be a new paragraph], but I'm too lazy to fix it.)**

"Now come on, seaweed brain, we need to get you guys into your costumes." I looked around. Nico was leaning against the car, chatting up Megan. She was smiling like he was the best thing since Sesame Street. And I love Sesame Street. (Have you ever heard 'Rubber Duckie'? I love that song.)

Grover and Juniper were off under some tree, talking quietly. Juniper was smiling a mile a minute, and so was Grover, for that matter.

I realized Annabeth was right and yelled, "Hey, guys, we need to get changed into our costumes!"

Everybody came right over. "Okay. Where do we change?" I asked. Juniper shrugged.

"You could change in the car," she pointed out.

"Yeah, that's fine. Nico, you change first, and then Grover, then I'll change last."

So we got changed, and in ten minutes, we piled into the car; Annabeth and I in the front (I drove again) and Nico, Megan, Juniper, and Grover piled in the back. For the first time, I looked down at her wrist and saw that her Etgroftnig bracelet was silver set with aqua beads. There was some charm on it, too, but before I could see what it was, she lifted her hand to pull some wayward blond curls behind her ear.

"Where is this party, anyways?" I asked. Just then, a few sheets of paper appeared with a _pop_ onto the dashboard. They were robin's egg blue. Once I unfolded them, I saw that they were directions—directions to The Palazzo, a huge casino-hotel. This party was a really big deal.

I told the other where we were going. Grover and Juniper shrugged at the same time, Annabeth was all _whatever_, Megan cheered, and Nico smiled, looking at her. I smiled to myself, too.

"Well, let's be on our way then," I said, and we roared out of the Appalachian Mountains at something close to 100 miles per hour. It felt good to be on the road again.

***

We got there in half an hour, thanks to my insane driving skills. Whenever I screeched to a stop, we'd all jerk forward, and Annabeth would say something about inertia and Newton or something. And I would roll my eyes.

"Here we are," I said. The hotel was like 50 stories tall, and there were fountains and all there. They were all turned off. I decided to play with them…later.

"Come on, let's go!" I opened my door and stepped out of the car. The backseaters came out too, and Annabeth circled around the car so we were all on the left side.

As a group we began to walk towards the doors. "Wait," said Annabeth. She had cream, thick pieces of paper in her hands. "Our invitations."

Annabeth handed one to each of us, keeping one for herself. "Mr. Percy Jackson," mine said.

"Where did you get those?" I asked curiously. She just shared a smile with Juniper and Megan.

"None of your business," she stuck her tongue out at me. And on that note, we walked into The Palazzo.

***

As soon as we walked inside, there was a huge staircase. After showing the guard-dude our invitations, Juniper took Grover's arm and Megan took Nico's, who looked like he was going to pass out. I held out my arm and Annabeth wrapped hers around it. It felt like electricity was arcing through my body. **(TLO, word for word ;D)**

Juniper and Grover walked down the steps. About a quarter of the way down, some guy announced, "Now entering are Mr. Grover Underwood and Ms. Juniper Heartwood." The fancy people downstairs started golf clapping.

Once Grover and Juniper reached the bottom, Nico and Megan started walking. "Mr. Nico DiAngelo and Ms. Megan Valencia," came the voice again.

As soon as the two of them reached the floor, Annabeth and I started down the stairs. Actually, it was more like glided. I have no idea how, but for those few minutes, I felt like we actually _were_ Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire.

"Mr. Percy Jackson and Ms. Annabeth Chase."

It sounded…I don't know, odd…when that guy said that. I wondered if there ever would _be_ a 'Percy and Annabeth' before I caught myself.

The golf clapping startled me out of my thoughts and I realized that we'd reached the dance floor. Nobody was dancing yet, but some band was playing old songs with a choir singing lyrics.

"You know, you don't look half bad like that," said Annabeth. She'd put on a blue and silver mask, and I slid my black (ooh, more black) one out of my jacket pocket. "You should dress up more often."

I snorted. "Yeah, right."

"I'm not kidding, Percy. You really look good." She didn't seem to realize what she was saying, but my face turned red.

"Thanks, I guess. So, what do we do now?"

"Hang out. Talk to socialites. You know, dahling, the usuaahhl," she said with a bad accent. We both broke out laughing.

We did just what she said, talking to the other people there. Whenever anybody asked, I said that I owned a ship company, and Annabeth said that she was the CEO of a company that published books. I figured Nico would say that he had a mining company or something, and Megan would probably own a make-up corporation. Grover and Juniper probably produce solar energy things, or something. It was kind of true. Even though our parents were the ones with all the power, we had some skills, right?

An hour or two later, it was six and dark outside. People had begun to dance, but the band was still playing old songs. Looking around, I saw that Romeo and Juliet and Adam and Eve were already on the dance floor. Annabeth and I looked at each other and shrugged. "What the heck," I decided, and then we joined the dancers.

_Casey would waltz with a strawberry blond,_

_And the band played on,_

_He'd glide cross the floor with the girl he adored and the band played on,_

_But his brain was so loaded it nearly exploded,_

_The poor girl would shake with alarm,_

_He'd ne'er leave the girl with the strawberry curls, and the band played on!_

That song made me a little uncomfortable. The only strawberry blond I knew was Rachel. Luckily the song ended and a new song began.

_In the good old summertime, _

_In the good old summertime,_

_Strolling through the shady lanes,_

_With your baby mine,_

_She holds your hand and you hold hers,_

_And that's a very good sign,_

_That she's your tootsie-wootsie in _

_The good old summertime!_

I looked down at Annabeth; I was a head taller than her now. She was smiling. For the first time I noticed that we were swirling around effortlessly, instead of kicking each other in the shins. Weird; I kind of liked it when we couldn't dance. And now a new song began, one way slower and sadder than the last one.

_Nights are long since you went away, _

_I think of you all through the day,_

_My buddy,_

_My buddy,_

Annabeth's eyes widened as soon as the music began, and as the band got to the third line, she gasped. She ripped her hand out of mine and said in a choked voice, "I need to go." She grabbed the skirt of her dress with one hand and started to run out of the doors. I decided to follow her.

Like I said before, it was dark, but it wasn't cold. The moon was out—a crescent moon—and there were a few clouds, but not the kind that were rainy. A forest edged the hotel, and on one of the trees, there was an old wooden swing. Annabeth headed straight there.

I ran after her. Normally, I would be way slower than her, but she was in high heels, so I came pretty close. Still, she got to the swing 15 seconds before I did.

Annabeth just sat on it; she didn't swing. She fixed her eyes on the few stars that were already out.

I came up behind her, but she didn't notice me. I saw that the swing was smooth from age and pretty wide.

"Annabeth," I said.

She turned around pretty quickly. "Why are you here?" she asked.

"Why did you leave?" I countered.

"Because…" she started to say something, but then stopped. "Why do you care?"

I wondered what was wrong, why she was being so…mean. "Seriously Annabeth, 'why do you care?' I cared because I thought we were friends. But if you want me to leave, I'll go." I turned around and started to head back to the building.

"Wait!" she called out. "I'm sorry. I know we're friends. I'm sorry I was mean."

"It's fine." Usually I wouldn't let go of something so easily, but usually she wouldn't apologize that quickly either. Annabeth was really upset about something.

"That song that they're playing…" she paused. I could still hear the song.

_No buddy quite so true…_

_Miss your voice, the touch of your hand,_

_Just long to know that you understand,_

_My buddy,_

_My buddy,_

_Your buddy misses you._

"I listened to that song all the time when—" She stopped for a second like she was deciding whether or not to say something. Then she nodded a tiny bit. "When you were on…Ogygia."

She'd guessed. I knew that she thought that I'd been on Ogygia, but I didn't know she knew. Either way, whether she had guessed or whether somebody told her, it made no difference; she knew that I was on Ogygia for those two weeks.

"You know?" I breathed.

"How dumb do you think I am, Percy? I have the intellect to figure out where you were—especially after I saw the moonlace you had."

"When?"

"I don't want to talk about this."

"I do."

"Fine then! What do you want to know, Percy?"

"I want to know why you were so 'devastated' at camp."

"I _thought_ we were friends." Her voice was steel and ice as she shot my own words in my face. I blinked. I had no idea when we'd gone from dancing to _this_.

"We are, Annabeth. I'm sorry; this really isn't the time, is it." It was more of a statement than a question.

I pushed the swing. Annabeth turned around, surprised. "What are you doing?" she objected.

I grinned. "Swings are more fun when you're swinging."

She laughed. "You know, I never got to swing when I was a kid."

"There's a first time for everything."

"I guess there is." I pushed the swing for a while, but then Annabeth stopped it with her feet.

"What are you doing?"

"Come up here." She slid to one side of the swing. I decided _'why not'_ and sat on the other side.

"Push on the count of three. One…two…three!" We pushed off in perfect synchronization and flew up into the air. The band was playing another song now, a soft number. We kept swinging.

I had the most fun I'd had for the past three years in the next fifteen minutes. We laughed for no reason so many times, and when one laughed, the other would start.

Some guy yelled, "Last song!" This song had two parts. It started off with a guy singing.

_When my heart is torn apart by love I wish I had,  
Well, I spend my nights in the city's lights,  
And things don't seem so bad.  
_

_Ya know the movement seems to soothe me,  
And the tempo takes control,  
And I lose my blues,  
When the New York City rhythm fill my souls  
_

_It's got to be the New York City rhythm,  
Runnin' thru' my life,  
The pounding beat of the city streets,  
That keeps my dreams alive,_

This song was so much like my own voice it was freaky. New York was really sometimes the only reason I even got out of bed in the mornings.

_  
I'm lost, I'm found, I'm up, I'm down,  
But somehow I survive. _

Even though everybody was dancing inside, I would much rather be here. Annabeth and I both sang the final verse with the song.

_  
It's got to be the New York City  
Rhythm in my life,  
It's got to be the New York City  
rhythm in my life, in my life!_

"You know, sometimes New York is really the only reason I keep going—the city, the people, the lights, the sights—I love it all," said Annabeth.

"I know what you mean, Annabeth, I really do. But Ginger, we need to get inside!"

She grinned, and I knew that all the arguing tonight had been forgiven. She got up from the swing…

…and immediately tripped over a small rock. I reached out and grabbed her, but she stiffened, which mad me feel kind of bad. I started to take my arm from around her waist, but she relaxed, grabbed my hand, and said, "Its okay."

And so that's how Nico, Megan, Grover and Juniper found us. _Awkward!_

***

We all headed towards the parking lot. On our way, I saw the fountains and decided the time had come. I reached to the ocean. Fountains on both sides of us started to spray ocean water, and created a delicate arch over our heads, not a drop spilling out. They noticed in an instant (they being N, M, G, J & A) and smiled to themselves. They all knew exactly what was happening. Unlike the rest of the partygoers who started gawking at us. As soon as we had passed under the arch, I cut it off. Luckily, nobody was behind us, so nobody got drenched.

When we got to the car, _we_ were the ones that gawked. There, attached to the back of our poor little Honda Accord was a Travel Trailer—an RV, with four beds, a bathroom, a kitchen, fridge, a computer, and a really small TV. Seriously, the whole thing looked like a house. A small house, but a house.

"We go to _one_ party with freakishly old music and they give us an _RV_?!" Nico yelled in delight. "We'll actually have someplace to stay now!"

This RV was so going to help us on this quest…unless we blew it up, of course. As we set out to someplace we could stay tonight, I could swear I heard a song on the breeze:

_I'm lost, I'm found, I'm up, I'm down,  
But somehow I survive._

_It's got to be the New York City,  
Rhythm in my life,  
It's got to be the New York City  
rhythm in my life, in my life!_

**So there you have it. Lots of Percabeth—10 WHOLE pages of Percabeth—are you guys happy now? I know everybody was OOC, and I'm sorry. Also, this is as Percabeth-y as I can get till the end of the story for highly classified reasons. Meaning SPOILER!!!! So I'm sorry if this isn't enough for you.**

**Anyway, all outfits can be found on my profile if you are interested.**

_**REVIEW PLEASE!**_** I spent my entire **_**vendredi et samedi**_** (French) writing this, and a few reviews will really make me keep going!**

OH! Please, please, please, please, please tell me whether or not to keep Juniper and Megan on the quest. I want to even out the girl/guy thing, but I don't want the story to have too many people. Please either drop me a review telling me yes or no, or vote on my profile (or both ;D) .


	11. Dracaenae

*************************PEOPLE, PEOPLE!!!! VERY IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE, READ PLEASE!!! I DECIDED TO CHANGE MEGAN TO A DAUGHTER OF HERMES!!!! NOW SHE IS A DAUGHTER OF HERMES!!!! **

**Also, in the voting, keeping the characters won.**

**BUT I'M PUTTING MY SPECIAL SPIN ON THINGS! FOR THE FIRST PART OF THIS CHAPTER, THEY WILL ALL BE HERE. BUT THEN WHAT…? READ TO FIND OUT!!!!!!*********************

_Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Or Cheetos. Or McDonald's. Heck, I don't even own an RV._

"One more time!"

"99 bottles of pop on the wall, 99 bottles of pop, take one down, pass it around, 98 bottles of beer on the wall…"

I groaned and banged my head against the dashboard in time to the song. For the tenth (literally) time, Nico and Grover—N n' G bros, I mean—had started their horrible rendition of 99 bottles of beer on the wall. A while back in Missouri, Nico and Grover had formed a group and decided to sing 99 bottles—a 'child safe' version. Meaning they changed 'beer' to 'pop'.

"WILL YOU GUYS SHUT THE FRICK UP?" yelled Megan from the backseat.

"Probably not anytime this century," I muttered. Megan caught it and smiled. Annabeth was in the shower and Juniper was cooking breakfast. After all, she did help make the meals at camp, so she and I would take turns.

"Grover, turn onto that exit," I said, staring into Annabeth's laptop. I was on Yahoo Maps, and I was telling Grover how to get to this one old building with a parking lot.

Last night we found an abandoned psychiatric hospital with a very wide, open, and _empty_ parking lot. We parked the car/RV **(A/N From now on, I'll refer to it as the car )** across three parking spots.

***

_"How do we sleep tonight?" I asked._

_"Hmm…there are six of us and four beds. I say Percy sleeps on the floor, Juniper, Annabeth, and Grover each take a bed, and Megan and I share," said Nico wickedly. Megan whacked him._

_"No. No, Nico. No."_

_"I don't wanna sleep on the floor," I whined, completely missing the point. Everyone laughed._

_In the end, Nico and I slept on the floor, and the others took the beds._

***

"Percy, where do I go now?" questioned Grover.

"Ummm, take a left. Yeah. Now go right, and we should be…here!" Grover cut the engine. All four of us stepped out of the car and walked into the trailer.

Juniper and Annabeth were laughing. "…and then he ate the apple! The entire thing, core, stem, and all!" Annabeth said.

"You're kidding! He really ate the whole thing?" Juniper asked. Annabeth nodded and they exploded into laughter again.

"Are you guys talking about me?" teased Grover.

Annabeth and Juniper looked at each other and said in unison, "Yes."

Grover looked hurt. "Hey!"

"I was telling Juniper about the time Percy, you and I were playing Hacky Sack, and you ate the apple."

Before they started yelling at each other, I died. (no, sorry, I meant DECIDED) to intervene. "What's for breakfast?" I asked.

"Froot Loops," said Juniper.

"That's the gourmet meal you promised?" I asked.

"Yes. Be glad it's not, like, frog legs."

"Fine, fine, but you're cooking lunch to make up for this," I said.

"No, you said that we'd eat at McDonalds for lunch today," objected Annabeth.

"When did I say we're gonna eat a McDonald's?" I yelled.

"Now."

"That is so old."

"It still works, and you know it."

"Percy, go shower," interrupted Grover.

"Unless you guys don't want hot water, sure," I said.

***

_"What are we gonna have for dinner?"_

_Everybody started talking at once. _

"_I ain't cooking."_

"_I say we have pizza."_

"_Enchiladas!"_

"_I'll cook if you don't want to." _

"_I can cook, ask Annabeth!"_

"_I swear I didn't put anything in the food!"_

_Eventually, we had Cheetos. They were pretty good, too._

_***_

Eventually, we all got ready. By that time it was 11:00.

"Hey, can everybody come over here?" I asked. Nobody listened. Juniper and Megan were on the computer, designing clothes or something. Annabeth was watching the news, and Nico and Grover were wrestling about a Mexican man with a dog named Fred (don't even ask, I don't know either).

"WILL YOU ALL GET YOUR BUTTS OVER HERE!?" I yelled.

Well, that got their attention.

"What, Percy?" Annabeth asked in this tone she gets when she's seriously mad.

"We need to get to the West Coast in four days," I said. And that started the pandemonium all over again.

"SHUT UP!!" My throat was killing me. "Will you guys listen? We don't know where we're going. We need to IM Chiron and ask him for advice."

"Before we do that, we need to eat," said Annabeth. "Let me drive now."

"How old are you?" Juniper asked.

"I'm fifteen, why?"

"No reason."

"Come on. I'll take us to some fast food restaurant."

***

"Annabeth," I said.

"What?"

"Speed up!"

Nico, Megan, Grover, and Juniper were in the RV, and I was in the passenger seat of the car, giving Annabeth directions.

"Turn left. _Turn left_. ANNABETH, TURN LEFT!!!" She swerved to the left at the last second, making me fall into the little ditch thing between the dashboard and seat.

"What the Hades?" I yelled.

"Serves you right," she grinned.

***

Thanks to her madcap driving, we got to a 30 mile away McDonalds in about five minutes.

All of us walked into the store. An old-ish lady was standing behind the counter.

"Yes, dears, what would you like?" she asked. We gave her our orders, pushed together a couple of tables, and sat down.

"We need to IM Chiron or Dr. Heale," I said.

"Here? We can't Iris Message here," said Megan.

"No," I admitted, "but as soon as we're done eating."

"Children, your food is ready," called the lady. I pushed my chair back, but Annabeth put her hand on my arm, holding me back.

"Why isn't there anybody else here?" she asked quietly. We all looked around. Annabeth was right. There was nobody else in the restaurant.

"You don't think that…" I never finished my sentence, mainly because the nice lady behind the counter became a dracaena.

"So, Percy Jackson, we meet again, yes?" she cackled evilly.

"Why is it that monsters always hang out in places with good food?" I muttered. And then I dove.

The dracaena pulled out two wicked, sharp hunting knives, similar to the ones the Hunters had. They weren't the same, though; these looked like they could carve through steel as easily as butter.

I saw Megan and Annabeth run behind the monster. Nico came up from the left, Juniper (carrying a wooden, splintered piece of the door) sneaked from the right, and Grover and I faced the dracaena. Really, though, it wasn't such a big deal. A dracaena—

Just then the door to the kitchen fell over and five others stormed out. _One _monster we could take. But six? It was doubtful.

"Grover, we need to split up. You, Megan, and Juniper take the first one. Nico, you and Annabeth take the second," I whispered. Nico, Megan, Juniper, and Grover nodded and did as I asked. Annabeth stayed.

"Which one are you going to take?" asked Annabeth. I gave her a grim smile in response. "You'll take the rest of them? That's insane!" she hissed.

"Go!" I said, and before she could argue, ugly number three approached her. She raised her dagger and charged.

I spun around and charged monster number four. This one was pretty dumb. She just stood there. I slashed and she disappeared.

I could see the rest of the battle. Nico and Grover were fighting the first monster, Megan was fighting number two—wait, she just disintegrated that one, and helped Juniper with number five. Annabeth was still parrying with number three, so I decided to take number six.

Now here was a smart monster. She started pushing back with her knives, never letting me get on the offensive. I fought back using my best tricks, but it wasn't going all that well. I needed to spend more time practicing. Just then, I found a chink in her armor—she left her neck unguarded for a minute. I reached up and swiped.

Everyone else was done as well. During the battle, we'd gotten into the kitchen and the stove had gotten knocked over. Fire was running up the walls and the fire alarm was beeping at the top of its nonexistent lungs.

"We need to get out of here before this place explodes!" Megan yelled.

"Why would it _explode_?" I asked.

"_Vlacas,_" Annabeth insulted me in Greek. "Look!" She pointed at the floor, where the fire was spreading quickly towards the gas oven and stove.

I cussed under my breath. Why do these things always happen to me? "Come on!" I said. "Let's go!"

***

In a few minutes, we were all inside the car. Well, we were in the trailer part. Nico and Grover were stretched across the beds (non-Crusty version), Juniper was sitting on a chair, and Annabeth and Megan were on the floor. I was standing right in front of the door. Before anybody said anything, the air directly in front of me started shimmering; an Iris-Message.

Chiron's face appeared in the mist. And he did not look happy at all. "Percy. Are Nico, Megan, and Juniper there?" he asked.

Megan caught my eye and started motioning wildly with her hands, signaling 'no!'

"Uh, no?" I said weakly. It came out sounding like a question.

"Percy."

"Fine." I walked over to Nico and the rest of them so Chiron could see them, too.

"Nico. Juniper. Megan. What are you doing out of Camp?" Chiron asked. He looked pretty mad.

Nico was about to say something, but Megan interrupted him. "Aphrodite sent us."

All of a sudden, the IM split into two, and we could see Aphrodite filing her nails, like some sort of conference IM. Apparently Chiron could see her too.

"Lady Aphrodite, why did you send these three there?" he asked.

"Oh, just to make things interesting," she sang.

"Well, the ancient laws—" Chiron started. Aphrodite cut him off.

"Oh, blah blah blah. I could care less." Thunder shook the room she was in.

"Lady Aphrodite, you need to send at least two of these children home!" said Chiron.

Aphrodite pouted. "Do I have to?" Chiron didn't say anything. "Fine," she muttered, like a sulky little kid. "You heroes, you decide amongst yourselves who will stay and who will go." And with that, she slashed through the mist.

Chiron sighed. "You all heard her. When you've decided who is going to come and who is going to stay, IM and tell Aphrodite. I'm assuming she'll transport them home." He ran his hand through the mist, and he was gone, too.

***

"So."

"I'll go," said Juniper. "It's not like I do anything to help, anyway," she said sarcastically, but her voice quivered. I guess she didn't want to leave Grover.

"No. I'll go," said Grover. "You're the heroes. I'm the goat."

A whole round of "I'll leaves" sounded. Annabeth kept getting more and more annoyed, I could tell. She kept scrunching up her nose.

"Wait!" she yelled. "Let's just flip a coin. We'll all get into sets of two, and then whoever wins will stay. I'm going to stay no matter what; this quest is for me. I'm not going—"

I interrupted her. "I'm not leaving either. This is my quest, I can't just walk off."

Eventually they decided on the coin flipping idea. I fished a nickel out of my pocket. "Here." I handed it to the first set: Megan and Juniper.

Megan said, "Tails." Juniper nodded and they flipped the coin. Juniper caught it.

"Heads," she said. Megan nodded, and said, "Guess that means I'm not on the quest anymore."

I moved onto Nico and Grover.

Grover said, "Heads." I handed the coin to Nico, and he flipped it. I shot my hand out and caught it this time.

"Heads," I showed it to them both. Nico nodded and said, "Okay. We should IM Aphrodite now."

***

When we IM'd Aphrodite, she was brushing her hair. "Yes?"

"We've decided," I announced.

"Alright. Who's staying?"

"Grover, Juniper, Annabeth, and I," I said. Aphrodite nodded.

"Close your eyes, all of you," she said. We did that. I felt heat and saw bright yellow light through my eyelids. When I opened them, Nico and Megan were gone.

"Well, there you go," said Aphrodite. "But before you start again on your quest, I can aid you in one other way. I can tell you where you need to go, or I can tell you what Vuretole is. Which one would you like to know?"

"Where we need to go," said Annabeth. I would have said vuretole, but I was sure Annabeth had some reason for saying what she did.

"Okay, you need to go to a city named Florence in Washington," Aphrodite said. "Must dash, dears, I have a…um…appointment! Good luck on your quest!" she exclaimed. With that, she was gone.

**Well, I overcame my Writer's Block. Finally! BTW, Accident is close to being completed! I'm thinking maybe two more chapters! But it would be really awesome if this story could reach 200 reviews by then! *hint hint* **

**Thanks! **

**~Anne Blythe (virtual cookies to whoever figures it out first!)**

**P.S. Hint about the name: Classic Canadian!**


	12. Dream and Cut

**Congratulations to ADONAI63 and I KNOW THE ANSWER (unregistered reviewer) for figuring out my name! It **_**did**_** stand for Anne Shirley in **_**Anne of Green Gables**_**, by L.M. Montgomery. Hope you enjoyed your virtual cookies and brownies, guys!**

**Oh, and Bailay, you can have the cookies and Snickers!**

_Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Yahoo Maps. I don't own Florence, Italy or Florence, Washington, either._

"Okay, then…" I said. "So we need to go to Florence."

"I'll start the computer and check out Yahoo Maps," said Annabeth. The computer was really fast; in a minute Annabeth was scanning a page with a map on it.

"Yeah, this is it. I'm going to print out the map and the verbal directions," she said.

"Wait, those things give you the directions to the center of town. We need to get to the ocean side," I objected.

"Okay…oh, there's a bay. I can get the address to that," she said. Without waiting for an answer, her fingers streaked across the keyboard. Another map came up. This one led straight to the Pacific. "I'll print this out."

The printer coughed out the copies. As she had said, there was a map and verbal instructions.

"Hmmm…this says it should take 55 hours. We don't have a lot of time…" I said.

"I'll try to make—" Annabeth started, but suddenly everything started blurring, and I was aware of falling to the floor.

"Percy?" Annabeth called, alarmed. Grover came over and felt my forehead. I wanted to assure my friends that I was okay, but then I wasn't there anymore. I was on Ogygia.

Like last time, Ann—Calypso was kneeling over her garden. Weird that I thought of Annabeth immediately, right? The two look completely different.

"Hey, Calypso!" I yelled. She turned around and smiled almost immediately.

"Hello, Percy. I suppose you're visiting again?" she asked.

"Yup. But I'm pretty sure I passed out this time," I said. I wasn't worried, though—my head felt cloudy, like I was smelling laughing gas.

"I hope you are alright. So what did you want to talk about?"

"What? I wanted to talk?"

"Well, the last time you came you wanted to tell me something. Is there something bothering you now?" She asked.

"Well, we started on that quest I told you about. We've gotten pretty far, too. But we still need to get a bit farther before it's over."

"And Annabeth?"

"I'm worried about her. I think she's forgetting more than she's letting on," I said. It was true, too—I was worried sick about her. She kept blanking out, and she missed details. She had a hard time remembering things, even if they happened only an hour ago.

"Tell me more about your quest. Tell me what monsters you fought," she asked. "You are the only link I have to the real world, you know," she said a little sadly.

So I told her. I told her about Medusa and Pallas and meeting Demeter and Persephone. I told her about fighting the Dracaenae.

But I didn't tell her about the masquerade. I don't know why. It just didn't feel…right telling her. The dancing, the swinging, the singing with Annabeth all felt…private. I mean, Calypso was a friend of mine, but…

"So what do you need to do now?" she asked.

"We need to find out what Vuretole is."

"Hmm…something Annabeth said might be…" I didn't hear what she said next, because suddenly I wasn't standing on Ogygia anymore. I was in the third bed in the RV.

A girl was standing over me, but my eyesight was dark, and my brain was fuzzy, like I'd just woken up. "Calypso?" I asked.

The girl spun around quickly, but she didn't say anything for a while. Eventually she just whispered, "No, Percy," and ran out of the RV.

My eyesight returned in time to see a flash of honey blond hair. "Oh, Styx," I groaned softly. "That didn't go well." Throwing off the soft blanket covering me, I stepped out of the bed, but before I could step out of the trailer, it started moving really fast. And I mean at something like 80, and getting faster.

"Styx," I said again. She must _really_ be mad at me if she wasn't even going to let me talk to her. Just then she slammed on the breaks, and I fell in the bed again. It was going to be a long day.

***

I sat in there for two hours—my eyes never left the clock. Grover and Juniper weren't there; I guessed that they were in the car with Annabeth. I was bored to death in there. I hadn't had the brains to bring something to do on this stupid quest (not that I'd have brought a book) but I decided to look through my bag anyway.

I remembered that we had stored the luggage in drawers—separate ones for all the people. But which was mine? I used the guess and check method and opened the first one. There was a red bag inside; not mine. My bag was black. Besides, the bag said 'Grover Underwood' on it in letters that took me a minute to decipher.

The second drawer had a tan/peach bag inside that was made of some strong cloth. This was so not mine; my bag didn't have flowers and vines embroidered on it.

Now mine was either in the third or fourth one. I opened the last one, the fourth one. Why? I've no idea.

This drawer had a blue bag in it with dark blue letters that said "Waterland" on it. It was Annabeth's old bag; the one she'd—ahem—acquired on our first quest. I hadn't realized that this was the bag she'd taken on this quest too.

Now, I knew that I should close the thing right there and then.

But I'm completely impulsive and ADHD, probably just like Pandora was. I couldn't resist the temptation, and I unzipped the bag.

I put my hand in and swished around in there. There were the clothes, but my fingers scraped something cold and metallic. I was about to yank it out and see what it was, but the car screeched to a stop, and I fell forward.

"I hate it when she does that," I muttered darkly. I waited for the car to start again, but it looked like we'd come to a complete standstill. Peering out the windows, I saw that we were in a parking lot again. I saw the three of them get out of the car, laughing at some joke.

I pulled my hand out of Annabeth's backpack, zipped it up quickly, and shoved it back into the drawer that was still open…just a second before she opened the door.

There was awkward silence between the four of us for a second, until Juniper laughed uncomfortably. "So, Percy, you're feeling better!"

"He's great," snapped Annabeth. "He'll drive now," she continued.

"All right," I said loosely. "You come and give me the directions, then."

"What? No way!"

"Why not?" I asked.

"Maybe you should ask C—" She stopped talking all of a sudden, like she didn't want to argue in front of Grover and Juniper. I was pretty sure my face was a sight. I was getting mad, because I knew what Annabeth had been about to say.

"You know what?" I asked angrily. "Fine. Maybe I will. But I won't ask you to do anything from now on, okay? You can just throw a big tantrum every time you get upset about anything."

"I will. I have no intention of talking to you for the duration of my entire _life_!" Annabeth's voice was like frozen acid—cold, hard, and deadly poisonous. If I hadn't been that angry at her, I would have flinched. Never before had we had a fight this colossal. "And you know what else? You didn't need to come back! You could have stayed there for the rest of your immortal life! And _we wouldn't have cared_! We can work perfectly well without you. So you can just stuff it and not brag all the time."

The words hit me like a slap in the face. Her sentences had started out loud and ended up freezing calm and cold. "Oh, I can't believe this! _I _brag? _I'm_ the one who brags? At last check, I'm not the one who _always, always _has a plan. I'm not the one who has enough pride to get myself killed. I am not that one that still believes that I canBRING LUKE BACK!" I exploded.

And then she walked over and actually slapped me.

"You will _not_ bring him into any conversation ever again."

"Or what? Will you throw another tantrum?"

"Shut up."

"Will you drive like a maniac?" I kept it up.

"I said, stop!"

"Will you hide behind Luke?"

She didn't answer. She pulled out her knife and in a movement too quick for me to see, slashed my arm.

I looked down and saw the blood trickle down my arm to my fingers. Slowly, I looked up. "You are unbelievable!" I screamed. I stormed out the door, making sure to slam it shut behind me.

**Well, my writing style has problems. Originally, I was going to have them fight Laistrygonians, then I decided to have a quiet scene between Percy and Annabeth, and then it turned into…this.**

**Review, please!**

**BTW: Story part of chapter was 1,469 words…**


	13. Refriends

**Hi people! If you celebrate Thanksgiving, happy belated Thanksgiving! If you don't…well, happy typical day!**

_Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians!_

I headed to the car. I wouldn't have directions, but at least I wouldn't have to talk to _certain_ people. I really didn't want to talk to Grover right then, and I didn't want to talk to Annabeth. Ever.

There was a plastic bottle of water in the cup holder, and I tipped half of it on the cut across my upper arm. It closed up immediately.

"Percy, wait!" I heard a girl yelp. I turned around, and saw that Juniper was coming to the car, too.

She opened the passenger door. "We don't have enough time to waste driving around the country." In her hands were the directions.

"All right." I drove out of the parking lot. We drove in silence for half an hour.

"She does care," Juniper blurted out suddenly.

"What?" I looked at her. She was frowning, like I'd done something wrong.

"She does care, Percy. You didn't see her when you were gone."

"I don't know who you're talking about," I lied.

Juniper sighed impatiently. "You know who I'm talking about. I'm talking about Annabeth. When you were gods know where for two weeks, she was shattered back at camp. You were—and still are—her best friend," she was going to keep talking, but I interrupted her.

"Oh, yeah, some friend," I scoffed. "What kind of friend does something like this?" I gestured towards where she'd cut me.

"Well, did you ever think about _why_ she did that? Maybe she didn't want to talk about Luke!"

"Then she and I are no longer friends. If she likes him, then she and I are not friends. So I don't know her," I said heatedly.

"You are impossible, Jackson! Did you ever think that maybe she likes you?" Juniper yelled.

"She likes me so much she decided to slice me to pieces. Oh yeah, nothing wrong with that picture at all."

"Percy." Juniper took a deep breath. "Put yourself in Annabeth's shoes for a minute. Think: you spent your childhood on the run, fighting monsters with an old hammer. Then you met two older kids who helped you, understood you, took care of you the best they could.

"Then one day, one of them 'died' trying to defend you. You and the other were devastated. This was a huge loss for your 'family'.

"For five years you stayed at Camp, never leaving except for short field trips. Eventually you saw your other friend in another way—not just your hero. Then you were told you could leave only if another person came.

"When that person came, he, another one of your friends, and you left on the quest. Eventually you stopped hating this other person, and you actually became friends. You decided that this other person wasn't at all bad when you came back to Camp.

"Then you found out that your hero—and maybe something else—wasn't all good like you thought. No, your hero was a traitor.

"But you kept living—and going on quests with that other person. You went from enemies to acquaintances to best friends.

"Then…you wondered if maybe you weren't _just_ friends? But then that person became friends someone else. And then this best friend disappeared for two weeks. You were devastated once again.

"Then you lose your memory, you contract a disease. You and this best friend's relationship is strained, and the thought of your hero stings.

"And now, you don't know where you stand with this person."

"Oh sure," I said. "Then shouldn't Annabeth know what I think? I was born as a mysterious hero, with a prophecy surrounding my every movement. I was just thrown into this mess without a clue what was happening. I ran blindly, just a tool of the gods.

"Then I met this curt, blond-haired, grey eyed, 'Miss Perfect' with whom I went on a quest across America. We became friends, and then best friends. I wasn't blind anymore. We went on more quests.

"Somewhere along the way, we hit a snag. Somewhere along the way, we just…collapsed. It was hard…and I was running blindly once again."

Everything was quiet.

"Then tell her," Juniper said quietly. "Tell her, because if you don't tell her now, your friendship won't be able to survive this shock."

"No," I shook my head. "No. If she wants to be friends, then she needs to apologize."

"Do _you_ want to be friends again, Percy?" Juniper asked.

I sighed. "Yes. Yes, I do want to be friends."

Juniper grinned happily. "Okay then! There's an exit coming soon, so pull over!" I did as she said. "We can all talk over lunch. We're in Helena, so it should take another eleven hours or so. Off topic, Percy, but I know you and Grover have been friends for a long time now…"

"Yean," I said uncertainly. I wasn't sure what she was getting at.

"So you must know lots of embarrassing stories about him, then." Juniper smiled wickedly.

I laughed. "Yup. And believe me; I'd be glad to tell you every single one of them." She laughed too. We sat quietly for a while.

"Thanks, Juniper," I said suddenly.

"What are friends for?" she asked loosely. "You know, Nico, Megan, Grover and I were talking the other day, and all we really want is for you and Annabeth to be happy. And really, it's none of our business whether or not you and Annabeth should be friends or more."

"Does that mean you'll stop plaguing us now?" I asked hopefully.

"Um, we're not _that_ nice, so nope. Not a chance!" I groaned loudly. Juniper laughed again. I saw the restaurant and pulled over.

"I'll go get them. You go get some food," Juniper ordered.

"Okay." Truth be told, I didn't really want to see Annabeth right away, so I walked into the restaurant. Radio music was playing loudly—but something was wrong. Because the song that was playing wasn't a recent one. It was one of the songs at the masquerade: New York City Rhythm.

Just then, the song ended and the radio dude announced "That was New York City Rhythm, by Barry Manilow."

What the heck? There were lots of people in this place, but nobody seemed to find the song out of place. The restaurant was an old country place. A small sign outside said that it was built in the 1800s as an inn. The name was Aunt Allie's.

Just then, Juniper, Grover, and Annabeth entered. Juniper looked excited, Grover looked tired, and Annabeth…I couldn't tell.

She was stoic, but not like she didn't want to show how she was feeling, more like she was dead. Before I thought too much about it, she turned away. Silently she walked to a table, and we followed. Silently, of course.

Another song came on, and I recognized this one, too. It was Super Massive Black Hole, by Muse.

I said, urgently, "Hey, guys, there's something weird about this place. They play really random songs here. Like just before you came, the radio was playing New York City Rhythm. Now they're playing Super Massive Black Hole. It's really creepy."

The radio announcer dude said, _After the break, we continue with our 'Through Time' music festival!_

Juniper and Grover glared at me. I chuckled nervously. "It was an honest mistake?"

"Whatever. Let's get something to eat," said Juniper. She got up and asked us, "What do you guys want?"

"Let's all just have sandwiches," Grover said. "Vegetarian, of course, for me."

"Sure," I agreed. Annabeth nodded slightly and said to Juniper, "I'll come with you." She got up and they both walked to the counter. About four or five people were standing in front of them, so I figured it would take a while.

"So, Percy," Grover started.

"Don't tell me you'll lecture me, too," I complained.

"Did Juniper talk to you?" asked Grover.

"Yes."

"Good, then you apologize to Annabeth as soon as she comes back."

"Why? It was her fault as much as mine. Besides, she was the one that cut me!" I moaned like a little kid.

"Percy, I know she's really upset. She didn't talk to me at all back in the RV, and all she laid facedown on a bed the entire time."

"Which bed?" I asked. Blame my ADHD.

"How is that important?!" He yelled

"I don't know. Just tell me."

"The third one, why?" Grover sighed.

"No reason. But…" Just then, the girls came back, laughing, and placed the food on the table, then took their place across the table.

We talked about random things for a while. All of us talked, but Annabeth and I wouldn't talk to each other.

There was a lull in the conversation. Grover sighed, Juniper tapped her feet on the floor impatiently, and Annabeth looked through the window to her right. (Sitting right across from her at the square table, the window was directly to my left.)

Finally, Juniper said, "Will you guys just stop this nonsense? It is childish and immature, not to mention completely negative towards us getting to Florence by next year, much less this one!"

"I don't want to talk to anybody who thinks I'm a know-it-all, braggart brat," Annabeth said in a low voice.

"Annabeth…" I started. She stood up.

"Excuse me," and then she headed to the bathrooms at the back of the place.

"I'm going to talk to her," said Juniper. She followed Annabeth.

They were gone for a while, something like twenty or thirty minutes. When they came back, both their faces were expressionless. Juniper looked happier than Annabeth, though, for some reason.

We sat in silence for a while longer, not sure what to say. Then all of a sudden, Juniper said that she had to talk to Grover and pretty much dragged him out of the building.

"Look, Annabeth, I'm sorry," I started, but she cut me off.

"No, I'm sorry. I really am. I know I acted like a little kid. And I know that I shouldn't keep hanging on to Luke. But—"

"You don't owe me an explanation, Annabeth." She didn't; also, I could see it was hard for her. Hubris wasn't the best thing for apologizing. What she did next surprised me. She tackled me in a huge hug. "Thank you," she said into my sweatshirt. "Thanks for being there, Percy."

I repeated Juniper's words from earlier. "What are friends for?" She smiled in response.

I almost died when everybody in the restaurant started to clap. They'd been following our entire conversation…gods, didn't these people have lives?

Juniper and Grover chose that moment to walk in. Yes, right then, when everybody was clapping and Annabeth was hugging me. Again, _awkward._

Juniper smiled. "If you guys are ready, I say we go and eat in the car, so we can keep going."

"Yeah," I said. "Yeah, that sounds good."

In a minute, we were all sitting in the car, the trailer behind us empty. I drove, and Grover and Juniper opted for the backseat, so Annabeth sat next to me in the passenger seat. She reached over and turned on the radio.

"How do you know what station?" I asked.

"Oh, I asked the guy behind the counter."

"Oh." Soon, we were all listening to A Blast from the Past, or whatever it was. Either way, it felt good to be on the road, and even better to not be fighting again.

***

**Okay, that's where this chapter ends. I'm so sorry it was rushed…but at this point I just want to be done with **_**Accident.**_

_*************WARNING: THE END TO THIS STORY IS VERY DISNEY-LIKE!**_** DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU! I DON'T WANT A LOT OF PEOPLE TELLING ME IT WAS CORNY, BECAUSE I KNOW…AND I LIKE IT LIKE THAT! SO DEAL WITH IT!!!!!**************

**This warning will be in all chapters till the end, 'kay? And I know now that there will be an epilogue! So, by ending, I mean chapter directly before the epilogue!**

BTW: 1910 words…and that's just in the story, not notes and disclaimer…


	14. Songs and Slobs

_*************WARNING: THE END TO THIS STORY IS VERY DISNEY-LIKE!**_** DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU! I DON'T WANT A LOT OF PEOPLE TELLING ME IT WAS CORNY, BECAUSE I KNOW…AND I LIKE IT LIKE THAT! SO DEAL WITH IT!!!!!**************

_**Note: Listen to the songs mentioned in this chapter at your own risk. I am not guaranteeing that they are rated "T".**_

**Super Genius: You were right, but I had to delete your review because of spoilers. Sorry!**

_Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. I don't own any songs mentioned in this chapter or their respective owners/writers. We live in freedom, people, no owning other people here!!!!_

The Blast from the Past Marathon had conked out somewhere on the border between Montana and Washington, but nobody noticed except for me. Why? They were all asleep, still sitting up. Grover and Juniper passed out in the backseat and Annabeth in the passenger. It was funny listening to Grover talking in his sleep.

"No I don't want hamburgers! You murder poor innocent animals and eat them!"

Or,

"Go away, skunk! No! That's my celery—oh no!"

Juniper and Annabeth didn't yell in their sleep, (unlike Grover) but I caught Annabeth murmuring once in a while. I'm pretty sure she said something about a picture, a notebook, and word puzzles. She said something about yogurt, too.

So there we were—a dryad, a satyr, and two demigods, three of them passed out and one about to, carting around an empty RV at 3 AM over really, really huge mountains.

(For a fun experiment, tell that to a cop or psychiatrist and watch their reaction…then run.)

The car was eerily quiet. Grover hadn't said anything for a while. Idly, I turned on the C.D player. I wasn't expecting anything to actually play, of course, since we hadn't put any C.D in there.

That's why I about jumped out of my skin when a song started playing.

After I calmed down, I realized I knew the song. It was 'Sexyback' by Justin Timberlake. What it was doing in our C.D player I didn't know. Still, I wasn't complaining. It was better than the quiet for keeping me awake, at least.

Annabeth stirred in her sleep, so I turned the volume down. The song played for its four minutes, and then there was a break for a few seconds.

Another song came on. I didn't know this one. Some guy was singing, but it was a lot slower than Sexyback.

A minute into the song, Annabeth murmured under her breath. Listening closely, I figured out that she was singing the lyrics with the song.

"Holy crap, she sings in her sleep!" I said in astonishment. Gods. Who _sings along with songs_ when they're sleeping?

"No, I don't," sleep-talked Annabeth.

"She's sarcastic in her sleep, too!" Seriously, I was really shocked. I knew that children of Athena were smart, but they were so smart that they could talk with other people in their sleep? I wondered what their cabin sounded like at night. Ha! Sleeping kids having conversations about math and other smart stuff!

Annabeth opened one eye and glared at me. "I'm awake, idiot!"

"Oh. Never mind, then. Hey, what happened to 'Seaweed Brain'?"

"Seaweed Brain has stopped being a term of insult and has become a term of endearment."

"I know. That's why I like it," I smirked, even though she wasn't looking at me.

"Percy Jackson, are you _flirting_ with me?" questioned Annabeth.

"Um, no?" I let my voice rise slightly at the end so it became a question, not a statement.

"I'm going to pretend that wasn't a question," she said in a no nonsense tone, but I could hear the smile in her voice.

**(That was my pathetic try at flirting. Bear in mind that they're tired and don't realize what they're saying. So not the Percabeth I promised. Keep waiting!)**

By the time we finished talking, the song had ended. I recognized the song playing. It was a song that all the girls at my school loved.

"Oh, this is one of my favorite songs."

"You like Taylor Swift?" I asked incredulously.

"Yes." She answered curtly. "I like this song especially." The song was 'You belong with me.'

"_But she wears short skirts, I wear t-shirts  
She's cheer captain and I'm on the bleachers  
Dreaming 'bout the day when you'll wake up and find  
That what you're lookin' for has been here the whole time._

"It just reminds me of…" she trailed off again.

"Of who?"

"Never mind." There was silence for another 3 or so minutes, while the song finished up.

A new one began. I didn't know this one, either, but Annabeth knew every word, even the ones in French.

"_I want your love and  
I want your revenge  
I want your love  
I don't wanna be friends__."_

Je veux ton amour  
Et je veux ta revanche  
Je veux ton amour  
I don't wanna be friends

"You know this song?" I asked.

"Yeah; it's _Bad Romance_ by Lady Gaga. I like her songs, but…"

"But what?" I asked.

"Nothing."

"Jeez, Percy!" She yelled suddenly, scaring the crap out of me. "You're half falling asleep! Take that left."

I was too tired to argue; I stopped the car when we got to the rest area and got out of the car. Annabeth got out too and we switched seats. We were back on the road in a few minutes.

I knew the song playing now; _Replay,_ by IYAZ, making it, officially, the strangest collection of songs I'd ever heard. The song blended into the next for my tired brain, and before I knew it, I'd fallen asleep.

***

I could tell it was really early when we woke up, but I couldn't go back to sleep with the sun in my face. Sleepily, I rubbed my eyes. When I saw the car moving, I almost passed out, because I thought I'd fallen asleep driving it. Then I remembered that Annabeth and I had switched.

Yeah, I'm a real Daedalus, aren't I?

"Hey," said Annabeth. "You're awake." It wasn't a question.

"No way! How'd you figure that out?" I glanced at the back seat, expecting to see Grover and Juniper. They weren't there. "Where'd they go?"

"I stopped a while back to change. Juniper and Grover woke up, and they wanted to shower and all. I'm pretty sure Grover's in the shower and Juniper's making breakfast."

"What? Why didn't you wake me up?" I asked

"They were in favor of waking you up, but you looked really tired, so I told them not to."

"Oh. Thanks. What time is it?"

"Seven. That's A.M., in case you were wondering." I didn't reply, because it was obvious with the sun shining in my face.

"Percy, can you…um…" she bit her lip. "Can you tell me what happened yesterday?"

"We had a fight and then made up." She nodded slowly. "Can I ask you something, Annabeth? How come you didn't forget anything for a long time and then forget suddenly?"

She laughed a little, but it wasn't a happy laugh. "Oh, I forgot. I just wrote everything down in a notebook that I read every time I forgot things. But yesterday I didn't get a chance to write it down, so I had to ask." I nodded.

"Percy…do me a favor. Promise me something. If something happens, promise me you'll read that notebook. I don't care how long it takes. Just promise me you'll read it." There was a desperate edge to her voice, like her life depended on my reading that book.

"Okay…sure, I will." I assured her. "Of course I will."

"Good." She sounded relieved. "Thanks."

"Um, sure. Do you wanna go to the R.V and get something to eat?" She nodded. In a few minutes, we stepped out of the car. I stretched and yawned. Annabeth slapped the back of my head.

"Cover your mouth, you look like a slob."

"I'm a teenage guy. I'm supposed to be a slob. That's my job."

"Sure it is," she scoffed. "It just so happens that I know a lot of teenage guys who aren't slobs."

"Like who?" I challenged.

"Beckendorf, Ryan, James, Jason," she rattled off a few more of our friends from camp. "And," she laughed, "how could I forget Jake?"

There wasn't anybody at camp named Jake. "Who's Jake?" I asked a little uncomfortably. Not that I was really curious, of course. It was just polite to keep the conversation going…right?

**(I apologize for the note. Notice that slobbish Percy is now trying to be polite for Annabeth. Don't you love jealous Percy? I do!)**

"He's this one guy I know back in Cali. He's sweet, and he's _not a slob_, unlike _some_ people," she said, throwing me a pointed glance.

"Okay, okay, you win! Are you happy now?"

"Very," she assured me. "Now let's go, I'm hungry!"

***

"Hey, guys!" Juniper called happily. She was braiding her hair with river grass. Annabeth fingered her own hair thoughtfully.

"Juniper, you're going to have to teach me how to do that someday," said Annabeth.

"Sure," Juniper laughed. "As soon as we get back to camp."

"If you're done, can I ask if anybody else is hungry?"

"Ahm withcha, brotha!" Yelled Grover.

"Um, Grover, when did you go all _gangsta_?" I asked nervously.

"I thought it would sound cool," he said dejectedly. I looked at Juniper.

"What happened to him?"

"I told him I that you thought he was uncool," Juniper smiled.

"Why did you do that?" I screamed. "G-man, I don't think you're uncool!" Well, I did, but I wasn't the most popular person in the world, either. "Juniper lied."

Annabeth rolled her eyes and said, "I'm gonna go make something for breakfast. Waffles." While I was trying to convince Grover that no, I didn't hate him, and that no, Nico was not cooler than him, and that, no, he was not a dumb goat, Annabeth finished the waffles and set them on the coffee table in front of us.

"Here," she said, setting a bottle of maple syrup in front of us. Juniper joined at the table.

I grabbed a couple of the waffles and put them on the table. After that, I poured the syrup on the stuff. I'd just started shoveling it into my mouth when Annabeth kicked me and said, "Slob," disgustedly.

"It's what I do!" I protested, and continued shoveling it into my mouth.

"Um, okay then…I'm not gonna ask. Whatever, we're going to be in Florence by tonight if we keep going at this speed," said Juniper. "After that, we can spend the next day trying to figure out the Etgroftnig/Vuretole puzzle."

A cold feeling spread through me. "Wait, how long has it been since we started this quest?"

"Ten days," Annabeth answered. "Why?"

"No reason," I answered, but I did have a reason. I remembered that Dr. Heale had warned me: we had only eleven days. But if this was only the tenth day, then that would give us just enough time…hopefully. "Well then, we'd better get started!" I said, stuffing the last (rather large) piece of waffle on my plate into my mouth. "Who's volunteering for mapping duty?" I asked.

**Not much happened…but there are very large, unforeseen problems in the future. Mwah ha ha!!! I know something you don't know!**

**As to the passages from the songs I picked…yes, they are important…too bad Percy's too much of a Seaweed Brain to figure out that Annabeth's **_**been dreaming about the day he's gonna wake up and find**_** that she _wants his love, doesn't wanna be friends _****:'(**


	15. Teumessian Fox

**Hi. I'm sorry, there seems to be a lot of confusion about my last author's note. I meant the 'doesn't wanna be friends' comment in correlation to **_**Bad Romance**_** lyrics. Meaning she wants his love, she doesn't want to be friends. If you look at that, I've corrected it. **

**Also, I just wanted to make it clear that this story takes place in the summer, between **_**Battle of the Labyrinth **_**and**_** The Last Olympian. **_

**Thank you thank you thank you THANK YOU SOOO MUCH for getting Accident's reviews into the 200s!!! I appreciate each and** **every review—anonymous or signed. Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed! (Or just read!)**

_Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians in any way shape or form. I didn't write it. I didn't buy it. I didn't sell it. I didn't do anything to it except OOC-ify the characters and put them up here._

"Percy, can you pull over right there?" asked Grover. I'd finally managed to convince him that I didn't hate him. Annabeth said she needed to shower, and Juniper said she got carsick, so Grover sat next to me with the map. I absolutely refused to let anyone else drive the car. (Guess I'm possessive.)

I complied with his request and pulled over at the gas station. "What's up?"

"We're running on vapors," he said. I looked at the meter and realized he was right. "It's a good thing that I noticed, because _you_ clearly didn't." I smiled sheepishly, then stepped out of the car and headed to the fill up thingy.

I watched the counter and when it got to fifteen gallons, I stopped it. Leaning in the car, I told Grover that I'd go pay inside. It was kind of annoying not having a credit card, but whatever.

I paid inside and left the building. Sliding into the car, I said, "I absolutely refuse to stop until we've gone another 50 miles."

"Um, okay, good luck with that," said Grover. He had a weird look on his face, like he knew something I didn't.

***

He was right. We drove another 15 miles when Annabeth appeared in front of me, in an Iris-Message. Like, the thing was blocking the road. I screamed.

"_What in the name of Hades are you doing, Annabeth! _Do you not realize that I am currently driving the car that you are a passenger of? And that I could get us all killed?"

"Please," she snorted. "With that kind of monster attracting aura, you could get us all killed at any time."

"WHAT DO YOU WANT?" I roared. Well, I'd like to think I did. I honestly don't think my voice is loud enough to be considered roaring. The car swerved madly. It was lucky that we were driving on a country road that was pretty much deserted.

"No need to yell. I just IM'd to say to pull over. Juniper and I have something to discuss with you guys."

The car swerved again. It slid to the left of the lane, then back to the right. I looked through the side window, trying to keep it under control. "Annabeth. Cut. This. Off. Right. Now!"

"Jeez, fine!" She cut through the mist.

I kept driving. "Why are you not stopping?" asked Grover.

"Payback."

"You're pathetic, you know that, right?"

"I don't have any other way." I made sure that I drove another twenty minutes. Luckily, she didn't IM again.

***

I screeched to a stop, just as I reached my 50 mile goal. Stepping out of the car, I called out to Grover. "Aren't you coming?"

His curly, goat-man hair was flattened. He blinked a couple of times and said, "Sure. Sure."

Hey, how was I supposed to know that driving at 160 and then opening the car windows wasn't a good idea? Blame Zephyr, not me.

***

"Care to explain why you IM'd me when you knew that I was driving the car?" I yelled at Annabeth. "Do you have a death wish? I mean, come on!"

She ignored me and stared at my face, like she was concentrating on something. After squinting for a minute, she shook her head like she was trying to forget something, she said, "Come to the coffee table. We all need to discuss something." Her speech was slow and…slurred, like she was drunk. I laughed nervously.

"Juniper, are you sure that she's not high or something?" I asked. Juniper glared at me, and Annabeth did too.

"I am not taking drugs and I am not under the influence of alcohol, as I am sure you are wondering. Please come to the table _now_!" she said loudly. I could tell she tried to cover her weird voice…issues, but it didn't quite work. Her voice was still slow and slurry. Plus, the words…it didn't seem like stuff she normally said.

"Okay?" I said, and I walked to the table. Juniper started talking.

"I think we need to ditch this RV. It's just slowing us down and using more gas. Besides, we won't need it soon. We can sleep in the car like we did yesterday."

"You're kidding, right?" I asked disbelievingly. "We can't just leave this thing on the side of the road. For one thing, we have a lot of stuff in here."

"That's what the boot of the car is for," pointed out Juniper. Annabeth looked like she wanted to say something, but then a strange look came over her face, and she went blank.

"Okay. Sure. And where will we sleep? In another day, I can guarantee that you will hate that car and its backseat."

"That'll be my problem. I can deal with it, and so can the rest of you. You've gone through worse."

"Uh huh." We _had_ gone through worse, but it was fun having someplace to go at the end of the day. No, more than fun. It made the quest _easy_, and I didn't want it to stop. I mean, we protect the world everyday. Is it so much to feel…content once in a while?

"Percy, our first priority is to get to the Florence immediately. We can't worry about our own comfort or anything else until then. We're heroes, Percy. We are the greatest heroes of this millennium. We can't be selfish. Because, just because, of the way the fates worked it out." Grover said. His voice was quiet, but strong. He was absolutely not going to give up on this.

I don't know what I would have said then. I guess we'll never find out, because right then, the ground shook, in a rhythm. Like when Mrs. O'Leary walks, only a thousand times more forcefully.

Mrs. O'Leary is 12 feet tall. To be a thousand times more forceful than her, something either had to be much, much heavier than her, or much, _much_ taller.

Looking out of the window, I could easily believe that _this_ was both.

***

The fox looked just like a normal fox…if a fox was 200 feet tall. And if a fox had a full set of shark's teeth.

I knew this monster. _Think_, I told myself, _what is it?_

The memory came to me in a flash.

_I was a sixth grade student in Yancy Academy. Mr. Brunner was instructing our Latin class in Greek monsters. Nancy Bobofit was snickering about something and Grover was sitting next to me. _

_"It was impossible to capture this monster. To get rid of it, Zeus had to send it into the sky as a constellation. Can somebody tell me which monster this is? Yes, Mr. Underwood."_

_"It's the Teumessian Fox, Sir."_

_"That is correct, Mr. Underwood. Who can tell me who defeated the monster in the end? Nobody? Ah, well, the thing was finally defeated by the magical dog Laelaps. Laelaps would always catch his prey and the Teumessian Fox could never be caught. To solve this dilemma, Zeus had to fling the pair into the sky—and that's how Canis Major and Canis Minor were created. That is all for today's class."_

I looked at Grover, and he looked at me at the same time. I knew he knew which monster was stalking us.

"The Teumessian Fox," breathed Annabeth.

"We don't stand a chance," said Juniper. "Get ready to die," she said, with a quiver in her voice.

"We are the greatest heroes of this millennium. And we don't give up. Ever." I said. I was terrified, but you couldn't tell by my voice. It was strong. "Come on. Draw your weapons." For good measure, I pulled Riptide out. "We are going to fight or die. And if we die, I'll see you in Elysium."

Just as I said the last syllable of Elysium, the door flew open, and a monstrous claw probed inside the RV. I slashed at it with Riptide, and then turned to face the others. "Come on. We are going to kill an invincible fox."

***

The battle was raging. It was like fighting three armies with four people. Juniper had a long spear with a celestial bronze tip, and Grover had a wooden club. Where they got them, I had no idea. I could see Grover's reed pipes sticking out of his back pocket. They were the old set, not the ones he had been awarded by the Cloven Council. They were the ones that his daddy goat had carved for him. The ones he'd had on our first quest.

I stabbed at the Fox. It was not…Juniper was right. We didn't have a chance of a snowball in the Fields of Punishment.

The thing turned to me, baring its fangs and snapping feverishly. It wasn't afraid. Nothing could catch it. None of the rest of us had that advantage. But we still kept going.

Grover moved behind it, playing a melody like flies buzzing around a carcass in the forest. It was slow and cutthroat dangerous. It irritated the monster, and he spun around. The Fox snapped at Grover, still playing around with us. Juniper crossed around, so she was standing, like, 40 feet away from me and directly across from Grover.

"Hey! Hey, ugly! Look over here! Look what I have!" Juniper yelled. She gripped the javelin a little higher than the center, at the 'sweet spot'. She threw it really high, hitting the monsters butt. He screeched like—

I really shouldn't cuss.

He spun around and threw himself against the RV, tipping it over. Kneeling by it, it came halfway up him. I hope that tells you how tall he was.

The Fox started groaning in agony. I wanted to tell him not to overact. I mean, how much worse could it be than sitting on a tack?

Much worse, apparently.

In a flash, I saw Annabeth climbing up the tipped-over RV.

"Annabeth! What are you doing?" I hollered. She ignored me and kept climbing. I sighed and ran after her.

I started climbing the trailer, right behind Annabeth. I had a flash of Déjà vu. This was just like when we were on Polyphemus's island, climbing the cliff. Then too, we had been going to fight a huge monster.

Annabeth was on the thing's neck now. I could see her plan. Grover and Juniper attack from the bottom, while she and I attack from the top. I had to admit, it was a good plan. In fact, it was perfect…until things went wrong.

She grabbed the thick fur at his neck and gripped her knife by the hilt. I jumped onto the Fox's back. He was stunned that two people were actually on him, I guess, so he didn't react for a minute. But the next thing he did was purely on instinct.

He jumped another 50 feet into the air, carrying the two of us with him. I cut deep into his back with Anaklusmos and he screamed, spinning around in midair. The sharp motion twisted the sword out of my hand, and in skittered to the ground far behind Grover. It would take a minute or two before it would reappear in my pocket. Until then, I was stuck on a huge dog type of thing, without a weapon.

Annabeth slashed at the neck of the thing a few times desperately. Ichor dripped down his neck in huge beads, pooling on the ground in front of Juniper. She slid to her left to avoid the slippery liquid.

The Fox howled in agony. He snapped his head backwards and Annabeth flew off, landing in the dusty, sharp gravel.

"Annabeth!" I screamed. Juniper broke away from the fight and ran to Annabeth. She knelt over Annabeth, putting her hand on her wrist, probably checking for a pulse. I remembered 11 days ago that I'd done the same thing.

I jumped off of the Fox in disgust. Sliding next to Grover, I yelled, "We need to kill this thing!" He nodded, and together we advanced towards the head of the giant Teumessian Fox.

Grover, creeping up from the left, wasn't noticed. The Fox was too busy moaning over his injuries. Grover slammed the thing on his head; it was a solid blow, and the Fox howled. His head lowered to the ground until his chin touched it.

I don't think he ever saw Anaklusmos arc through the air.

I didn't stay behind to stare at the rapidly melting remains of the monster. I ran to where Annabeth and Juniper where. Behind me, I heard Grover panting to catch up.

When I got there, Annabeth's eyes were open, but I could tell that it was using a lot of her energy just to keep them that way. Her breath came in quick pants.

She looked at Grover and Juniper in turn, her face filling with desperation as he looked at each of them. She didn't seem to notice me standing next to her. All of a sudden she turned and looked at me.

The confusion and desperation cleared. She smiled the teeniest bit and asked, "Percy?"

And then her eyelids closed.

I understood in a minute what had happened. The disease hadn't gone into effect when we started the quest. The disease had started at the car accident. And it had been exactly 11 days, 11 hours, and 11 minutes since then.

_"In 11 days, 11 hours, and 11 minutes, she will collapse into a comatose state...you will have one hour before she will succumb to the disease completely. Once your hour is up, she will be beyond help of any power—god, titan, or even Ouranos. One hour is all the time you have."_


	16. Cure

"Oh, gods," I groaned under my breath. "I was _so_ wrong. So wrong."

"Percy?" asked Juniper, her voice filled with alarm. "Do you know what happened?" I ignored her.

"Percy! Do you know what's going on?" bellowed Grover. I picked Annabeth up and turned around.

"We need to get her someplace," I muttered, completely aware that I sounded like a madman. "We need to talk to Heale. We need to figure it out now!" My mutterings ended in yells.

The RV was still flipped over. It wasn't connected to the car; the chains had snapped, so the car was still standing flat. I walked over to it and opened the back door. (How I did that while carrying a person I don't know.)

"Come on!" I yelled. I laid Annabeth in the back seat and pulled the keys out of my pocket. All but jumping over the car to get to the drivers seat, I stepped into the car and inserted the key into the ignition. Grover and Juniper exchanged a wide eyed look and then Juniper nodded the tiniest bit. They ran to the car, Grover sliding into the passenger seat and Juniper in the back.

I stepped on the gas pedal, and the car shot forward like a ballistic missile. Grover held his seat with both hands so he wouldn't fall backwards.

"All right, Percy," he started. "Tell us what's going on."

There was no point in beating around the bush. I decided to tell them the whole thing. When I finished, Grover looked shocked and Juniper looked like she was going _into_ shock.

"Are you sure…are you sure that she didn't know?" Grover asked timidly. "Maybe she knew what the cure was."

"Can you stop talking like she's dead?" I snapped. "She's not dead, and she won't _be_ dead for a long time if I can help it!"

"Okay. Maybe she _knows_ the cure then," suggested Grover, putting extra emphasis on the present tense. "She is a daughter of Athena, after all."

"I don't know," I said miserably. "She never said anything."

"Maybe she wrote it down. I saw her writing in that red notebook a lot," whispered Juniper.

"Oh my gods," I moaned. How had I forgotten about her asking me to read her note book? Immediately I spun the car around, so fast that it created black tracks on the street. I headed back towards where the RV was.

"Percy, where are we going?" asked Grover.

"Back," I answered. "She told me to read her notebook. And I am going to read it."

Because I drove like a madman, we got there in just a minute. The RV was still there, but something had happened to it. It was broken across the center, like it had been slashed at with huge claws. The Teumessian Fox.

I jumped out of the car, ran to the trailer. We didn't have a moment to spare. It had been at least fifteen minutes since Annabeth had collapsed. We didn't have more than 45 minutes.

I scaled the bottom of the trailer, and reached the side. Opening the door, I jumped into the thing.

It was mayhem. All of our things were thrown around the thing, our stuff spilling out of drawers and tables. The computer had fallen to the ground and shattered into a thousand pieces. Our bags were ripped open and our clothes had slipped onto the floor. The glass coffee table had broken; the sofa had tipped over it.

I spun around, bewildered. Where would I find a red notebook in this mess? It could be anywhere—with the rest of Annabeth's stuff, under the remains of the table, near the beds. I decided to start by looking near Annabeth's things, under her bag.

I picked the bag up and tipped it upside down. The first sounds were soft—but a metallic thump made me look down. It was a silver framed picture. I turned it over so I could see the picture in it.

What I saw brought a lump to my throat. It was the picture Chiron had taken of the two of us when we'd won the annual chariot races. To fit both of us in the picture, Chiron had to squish us so close together that our heads were touching. We were both laughing our heads off in the shot. It was so easy to laugh with each other back before things had gotten complicated.

I had the same picture framed in my room.

I stared at it for another minute before putting it down. I kept looking around for the notebook. Was it on the table? No. Was it under the smashed desk? No, it wasn't there either. I felt like a child playing hide-and-seek.

"Percy!" I heard Grover shout. "Percy! Hurry! There's a fire!" I leaned out of the window, and saw that he was right. There was a fire, burning fingers licking the distance between the front of the trailer and me at the back. I didn't have long before the entire thing exploded, I knew that.

I continued the search, even more frantic than before. _Where was it?_ There, under the broken TV. It was there, partially buried by the simple wood table that had been the only thing to escape the destruction.

I ran over to the thing, started yanking the notebook out from under the table. It wouldn't budge at all. The table was heavy, thick oak.

"Percy, it's almost there!" warned Grover.

There was a muffled ripping sound, and I tried to be more careful. I lifted the heavy table and slid the book out from under it.

"Percy, what're you doing? Come on!"

I grabbed the chair from the corner and dragged it so it was under the door. I lifted my hand to touch the metal, and the heat almost burned my fingers. How would I get out of here?

_The window_.

I ran to the window and pushed against the thick glass. Nothing happened. I pushed harder. Still nothing. I moved a few steps back—and my eyes fell on the framed picture. And below that, I saw Daedalus's laptop.

I wasn't going to leave without those.

"Percy, forget it! We'll figure it out without the notebook!" yelled Grover. "Get out of there _now_!"

I went over to the laptop and the picture. Adding those to the notebook on my arm, I turned to my right and ran straight towards the window.

The glass shattered and I fell out of the trailer, landing on the gravel.

"Percy!" shouted Grover and Juniper in unison. I staggered to my feet, examining my right side at the same time. A few shards of glass were lodged in my skin. As long as they hadn't gone too deep, I'd be all right.

"I'm fine," I said in a shaky voice. Walking towards the car, I stumbled a little. A split second after I started walking, the whole trailer exploded behind me.

I looked at the notebook as I walked, flipping through the pages. Annabeth's handwriting filled a lot of the first pages. As far as I could tell, it was just an account of all the things that had happened on the quest. I kept flipping the pages, until I came to the last page. It looked like a letter. _Dear Percy,_ it started.

_Dear Percy,_

_If you're reading this, as I'm assuming you are, then what I thought would happen did happen. I'm fighting against Etgroftnig as you're reading this. I probably can't communicate with you guys. It's up to you to figure it out. _

_I can try to help, though. _

_Percy—remember when you, Grover, and I were on the road right before running into Medusa? We were trying to figure out the puzzle of Etgroftnig and Vuretole. Grover thought that Vuretole might be a plant or herb. I thought that it was an anagram, a word trick. _

_Guess what? I was right._

_I'm really sure that Etgroftnig and Vuretole are anagrams. I've spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out the puzzle. My best guesses are below._

_I wish you luck. After all, it is my life that we both are gambling on._

_Yours,_

_Annabeth._

ETGROFTNIG:

FORGETTING

VURETOLE:

URET VOLE:

TRUE L

That was where the paper ripped. The other part had been destroyed with the rest of the trailer. But looking at the remaining part of the paper, it was painfully easy to see what URET VOLE unscrambled out to be.

_**Annabeth Chase**_

I couldn't recognize the girl who was leaning over me. She said, "Annabeth!" and felt my wrist. _Annabeth_. That must be me, then.

Just then, another boy came up. He, too, asked me to recognize him, but I could see nothing familiar in his curly brown hair and kind brown eyes. I didn't recognize his limp, either.

As I struggled with myself to remember these people, yet another character arrived on the scene.

It was _him_.

This boy I knew. I knew those viridian green eyes, the inky black hair. I knew the lips set in a frown on his face. I knew this boy, and I resolved that I would never forget him. No, he would be my constant.

But what was his _name_?

Without my permission, my lips moved. "Percy?" I inquired.

Percy. I was Annabeth, and he was Percy.

I had, now, two pieces of information. To celebrate, I tried to keep my eyes open longer, but everything blurred into a mix of colors, with no shapes. I could see three blurred figures floating above me, and I guessed that they must be Percy, and the other two.

I heard sounds like my ears were stuffed with cotton under the sea. My eyes closed against my will and I felt all energy leaving my body. The soft seats that had seemed so comfortable a minute ago were freezing ice and blazing fire. My eyes closed and there was darkness.

The faces were gone, and to my surprise, I couldn't remember who they were.

One voice broke through my lethargy. I could tell it was someone very close to me…but I struggled to remember who. I tried to make out what they were saying, but I couldn't understand. I didn't…I can't…I don't want…

I don't _know_ who I _am_.

I wasn't thinking, of course. I was just feeling, and I felt an overwhelming sense of anger and sadness and pain and agitation…and confusion. Endless confusion. Voices of something whispered to me, asked me who I was and where I was and what I needed and who I wanted and _I couldn't answer. _

I wanted to scream but I found I couldn't breathe a word. I screamed in my head even when my mouth didn't move.

_I don't know!_ I shouted_. I don't know! I don't know who I am or where I am or what I am. I can't breathe. I can't scream, and I can't…live. I don't know what this is. I'm not dead. I should know this. I always know things…_

That voice came again, calling. I couldn't make out what was being said, but I tried.

_Why do I hear that voice? Why do I feel like I know it? Why do I need to know who it is? Who is calling me? Who is beckoning? Why do I feel so lost? Why am I surrounded by this darkness?_

This time I was asking the questions…but there were no answers. I struggled to remember anything. I struggled to remember _why_ I struggled. I needed to do something, but I wasn't sure quite what.

Just then, there came a voice that was stronger. Per se, it wasn't stronger—it was just more effective in cutting through to me. It sounded broken and wounded. It was pleading with me, but I couldn't tell what it was asking. I wanted to comfort the voice, but I couldn't move at all.

I moved my head to the right. Well, I tried. But once again, I seemed to be locked in place.

The voice sucked in a long breath, seemed to prepare itself for something. It lowered itself to my ear and said something. I didn't understand it at all.

But this was different.

An explosion of colors—a world of sounds, of sights, of things. It made a universe of scenes and filled the darkness. I saw pictures flash around me. A little, two year old girl with curly blonde hair and grey eyes, who I realized with a shock, was me. A man with sandy hair and hazel eyes; my father. A girl with spiky black hair and electric eyes. Her face was filled with pain and power.

A sandy, blond haired boy with pale blue eyes, a painful white line of a scar, and a smiling mischievous face. As I looked on, the pleasant expression changed to a sneering grimace, and I felt an immense sense of loss.

It took me a minute to recognize Thalia and Luke, but when I did, I was not surprised.

And then I saw others who mattered to me: Grover, Chiron, Juniper, my mother, Athena.

But then came another picture that made it seem like an electric current was running through my veins. Actually, it was not just a single picture. It was a hundred—a thousand—a million.

They were all of a single boy, in a thousand different positions. A boy with inky black hair and piercing viridian eyes. I saw others with him sometimes. I saw Nico, and Juniper, and Grover. I saw Elle. I saw Malcolm. I saw him with Rachel, when she's asking him a question in front of a school. I saw him with me, in a moment when we're laughing after a race. Once I saw him with Luke, and his face was twisted in pain and apology. I closed my eyes against that image.

Now phrases come back to me.

"Annabeth, you must be wise."

"Annabeth, you shouldn't go towards danger!"

"Annabeth, stay here."

"Annabeth, you must wait until somebody comes."

"Silence, Annabeth. He's still conscious. Bring him inside."

The first phrases were all ordering me. The next words…they were similar in the way that they were the same. Always the black haired boy—_Percy _, that is—said them. But they were not in the same places.

"Wise Girl."

"Wise Girl."

"Wise Girl."

Wise Girl again and again and again, repeated a thousand times.

Yes, they were always the same words, but in different places. I saw them scattered across the Big House, near the creek, across all of America in a single summer, all in a single moment.

My thoughts didn't make sense. Why was that?

But then the voice, all but forgotten in the explosion of experiences, spoke again. And this time, the voice said words I understood. They were the words I had sworn many times I would never hear, and they were the words I swore I would never forget.

_I love you, Annabeth._

No, they were words I would never forget, I said to myself.

But the fates are cruel—_didn't he say that once?_—and the memory of the words were gone. Because as soon as the lovely voice said those words, the color left in a flash of darkness.

And when the color and excitement left…all the memories left, as well.

The darkness was cool and comforting. I found that I could think. I stretched my thoughts and found that the last thing that had happened to me was…was I getting in a taxi? Yes, and I remembered telling the slouchy, loud-mouthed driver Percy's address. I felt the same pang of dislike that I'd felt earlier, when he had boldly inquired if that was my boyfriend's address.

We drove for a while—and then…there was an accident.

My eyes flew wide open in shock…I saw him leaning over me. His eyes, too, were wide open; not in shock, but rather in astonishment.

"Percy?" I asked. "Can I ask why we are in a car? And why Grover and Juniper are over there?" I inquired, pointing.

He looked a bit pained at first, but then just leaned down and hugged me. "Annabeth," he said into my hair. "Annabeth…do you remember…I mean, what's the last thing you remember?"

"A cab…and an accident," I answered uncomfortably. He pulled back, and when I saw the expression on his face, I knew that my answer wasn't right. "What happened?"

In response, he smiled weakly and called Juniper and Grover. He slid into the driver's seat, leaving me in the back. "Hey, wait. I'm sitting up there, in the passenger."

"Fine. Hurry. We need to get back soon."

"Back where? Where are we?" Just as Percy answered, Grover and Juniper arrived and sat in the backseat.

Percy pointed to a map. "We're here. In Florence. And we need to get back to New York City."

**So…how was it? I liked writing in Annabeth's point of view. The next chapter, which is also the last chapter, will be the Epilogue. **

_Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians._


	17. Getting Ready

**Hey, I just wanted to let everyone know that this chapter is in third person. Don't get confused.**

_For the last time, I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians! (Or Boom Boom Pow. Or Fallin' for You)._

It's an easy trip back—relatively. There are the complaints that are to be expected of four teenagers. Juniper, the one who promised not to complain about the long trip back without the RV is also the one who complains first.

"I am so _bored_!" she announces. Annabeth agrees.

"I have nothing to do. We don't have internet access, and even if we did, my laptop's dead," she says plainly.

"Well, at least you have a phone. That's charged, isn't it?" asks Percy.

"What does my phone have to do with it?" she replies, whipping out the small silver rectangle. "It's not like I can use it without being eaten." She lays it on the dashboard.

"See?" she asks. "All it does is sit there!"

"What do you want it to do? Sit up and beg?" counters Percy, and Grover snorts laughingly from the backseat where he and Juniper have been sitting, fingers twined since Montana. Annabeth glares at Percy for a minute before she laughs, too.

"Okay, that was a good one," she snickers.

There is silence for a while, until Percy suddenly says, "I'm hungry. And tired." As one, all four turn to look at the clock. The robotic, black lines declare, '10:15 P.M'. The heroes had skipped their lunch in their intensity to get back to New York before the impending war catches up with time. Still, they all know that they need to rest _sometime_.

"Annabeth, do you know how much money we have right now?" Grover asks.

"Um," she hesitates. "Oh…we had, hmm…" she proceeds with her mental accounting and finally comes up with an answer.

"Oh, good," says Percy. "Then we should have enough."

"Enough for what?" asks Annabeth nervously. She knows that Percy's probably going to get them into some escapade.

"Holiday Inn," he answers simply.

"Oh gods," says Annabeth. He is _so_ going to screw something up, she just knows it.

***

Sure enough, Percy Jackson manages to screw up again.

In another half an hour, they are at the Holiday Inn, checking in. The clerk looks suspiciously at the fake ages and fake names that Percy provides, but what really bowls him over is their lack of real luggage. They're carrying a backpack and a laptop. Still, he has been born and bred on the principle that the customer is always right, and he allows them to pass.

"Here are the keys to room 818," he says, and Percy hides a smirk. Room 818 once again. It seems that they are being stalked by those numbers. The clerk keeps on about the hotel's pet policy, _Must be in kennels_, and the breakfast program_, starts at six, ends at nine_, and on and on. Percy assures him that we have no pets, and that no, we don't need an in-room kitchen and that no, we don't have any children, where would they be, in our bags?

Finally, the young clerk allows them to pick up their luggage and enter their rooms. It's spacious, with a private shower and mini snack bar. There is a locked door connecting it to the suite next door, and a closet stocked with extra bedding.

Of course, thinks Percy, we won't need those. We have two beds here.

Wait. _Two _beds? Thinks Annabeth.

"Percy Jackson, once again, you have screwed up. There are two beds here. And there are four of us! Count! One, two, three, four!" she yells.

Percy succeeds in looking sheepish for a minute or two until their neighbors bang on the wall angrily. He starts laughing at the top of his lungs. "Ha ha! Annabeth, you yell too loudly!"

Annabeth looks at him as if he's insane. "You are sleeping on the floor. Juniper and Grover are sharing, I am on the other bed, and you are _so_ sleeping on the floor."

Once again, sure enough, Percy is sleeping on the floor, and Annabeth is sleeping in the double bed.

***

The four teammates finally get to sleep at around twelve at night. Well, two of them do. Grover and Juniper are passed out on opposite ends of their bed, with more than half of it between them.

Annabeth is feeling too warm and just…uncomfortable to get to sleep. Like she's missing something, the feeling she has when she's just one piece away from solving the puzzle.

Percy is satisfied. He's faced today what he's been denying for a long time. He knows he'll find a way to tell Annabeth what she's forgotten. Still, he's uncomfortable, but for a wholly different reason then Annabeth's. Even through the bedding, the floor is hard.

Slowly, he raises his head with the intention of sneaking up on Annabeth. He doesn't know what he'll do then, but he knows that…well, when you put the two of them together, they'll figure something out.

When he sees wide grey eyes looking back at him, he announces with great dignity, "Gah!" and falls back into his pathetic mattress. Annabeth's silent laughter shakes the bedding.

"You should have seen the look on your face!" she whisper-shouts. "On second thought, you shouldn't have. You'd die of embarrassment!"

He pouts in such a boyish fashion that Annabeth flies into another gale of laughter. "Why are you awake?" Percy demands.

"I can't sleep," confides Annabeth. "Why are _you_ still awake?"

"The same." Of lack of anything better to say, he asks, "Have you noticed that the number of this room is the same as the hospital room?"

She nods. "And your birthday, too," she points out. "818, 8/18, get it?"

"I hadn't thought of that," he admitted.

"And that's why I'm the smarter, more observant, and overall better person in this relationship." He shifts uncomfortably, but not because of her words. "Why are you squirming?"

"I'm not squirming; I'm…doing the twist."

"Why are you_ doing the twist_?"

"The floor is hard."

Annabeth laughs guiltily. "Sorry about that. I shouldn't have made you sleep on the floor. You and Grover should have shared."

"Great! Let's kick Juniper off of the bed so I can get some sleep!" he says sarcastically.

"Um…no. Come up here. It's a double bed; we can share. And it's just one night, right?"

"Are you sure?"

She nods enthusiastically. "Uh, duh! Like, I'm totally, like, sure!" she exclaims in a too high voice that goes with stereotypical cheerleaders and popular girls. This time they both laugh at the sarcasm and in a quick bound Percy is off the floor and on the bed. Annabeth scoots over to make room for him.

"Thanks," he whispers.

"No problem," the quiet reply comes, and then the room is silent. Artemis's moon sees them all fall asleep, and directly twelve hours later, Apollo's sun sees them driving across Pennsylvania, just a little more of a drive to New York.

***

That, however, was the tale of a week ago.

The heroes all got back to camp perfectly fine, and partially in their honor, and partially to relieve tensions of the upcoming, impending war that was almost upon them, Chiron and the gods decided to throw a ball, so to speak, in _Le Ballroom Grande_, which was actually a hotel located in Manhattan.

Juniper said she was worried that her plant might not like her being gone so much, but everybody knew that she and Grover had had a falling out. Grover didn't want to see Juniper there. Percy refused to go because he didn't like dressing up, and Annabeth refused to go because she didn't like dressing up.

And that is where the dainty-but-don't-let-that-fool-you Silena Beauregard came in. As a daughter of Aphrodite, she wasn't one to miss a party. But _unlike _a typical child of Aphrodite, she didn't like stealing the spotlight, and she didn't like anybody else doing it, either.

And that's why she made it her mission in life to get our champions to the grand celebration.

After the delicious-as-usual dinner, Silena walked up to the podium that Mr. D and Chiron were standing on.

"Mr. D," she started, "Do you think that it's possible for Annabeth, Juniper, Megan, and I to go to the Plaza tomorrow? It's a Saturday as it is and we'll clean up our cabins/surrounding areas before we leave, I promise."

"Honestly, I don't care. I would rather _all_ you brats just left me alone," he spat, not even looking up from his cards. "Go. I'll get Argus to drive you."

"Um, Mr. D, I can drive them. I'm eighteen."

"Fine, fine. Now go away or else I'll get a picture of you, drunk, dancing on a table with a lampshade over your head!" he threatened. Silena rolled her eyes and left the podium.

"Can Annabeth Chase, Megan Valencia and Juniper Heartwood come here, please?" she yelled unnecessarily, because they were all pretty close to her. They walked up toward her uncertainly.

"We can go for a girl's day out tomorrow…and find us all clothes for the ball!" she squealed happily. Megan and Juniper grinned, but Annabeth said, "Yeah. No way." She started to go back towards her table, but Silena grabbed her wrist.

"Listen Annabeth, you're gonna go with us or I'll find a way to make you regret it, I swear I will!" she smiled evilly.

"Oh, right," scoffed Annabeth. "I'm so sure."

"I wouldn't be _that _confident," crooned Silena. "Remember, I was the one you ran to when you had that big crush on that what's-his-face, Ryan last year. I don't think you'd be too happy if _certain_ people found out about that little affair!"

Annabeth eyes widened. "You wouldn't," she warned.

"Oh, I would," promised Silena.

After a moment, Annabeth sighed. "Fine," she said sourly. "But I'm not going to some big, fancy department store that prices things at forty dollars for two inches of material."

Of course, they ended up in exactly such a store.

***

"Silena, look," said Annabeth. She was trying to remain calm, but it wasn't working very well. "I don't mind dressing up once in a while, but I don't like dressing up in stuff like this!" she gestured to the near naked mannequin. "I _said_ I was going to go the party! I'll wear a dress, but it sure won't come from here!"

Silena squinted, irritated, looking more like her mother than she ever had. "Megan, Juniper, keep looking over there. I'm going to talk to Annabeth." Megan and Juniper walked off to where Silena motioned.

Grabbing Annabeth by the arm, she dragged her behind a rack of shirts.

"Look Annabeth, I know you like him, Clarisse knows you like him, and so does the rest of the camp."

"I don't like anybody!" lied Annabeth. Silena sighed; she wasn't going to get anywhere, she could see that.

"Fine. Okay, look. If I let you pick your own dress, do you promise that you won't go looking like something from _Scream_?"

"Okay…as long as you don't put too much makeup on me," countered Annabeth. Silena smiled and nodded.

"Sure." Annabeth turned to leave; she'd seen a promising store a down the street. "And Annabeth?" asked Silena. "The perfect dress is something _you_ like. I'm sure you'll find the perfect dress."

Annabeth grinned and headed down the street.

***

A few minutes later, Annabeth walked into the boutique briskly. The matronly, middle aged lady standing behind the counter smiled warmly at her, and Annabeth smiled uncertainly back.

"Hi, I'm looking for a dress…" started Annabeth, and proceeded to describe the kind of dress she wanted. The woman's eyes lit with recognition and excitement. She nodded excitedly and led her to a back room filled with old garment bags. The owner of the store seemed to go through some mental catalogue and picked out a bag.

For a second, Annabeth worried the dress might be aging and discoloured. Then, in a smooth, expert movement, the lady removed the dress from the bag.

She gasped quietly. The dress was…perfect.

***

Percy was talking to Grover and Nico, under the heavy maple tree deep in the Camp forest.

"So you guys actually _want_ to go to this stupid thing?" asked Percy disbelievingly.

Nico shrugged. "As long as I don't have to wear a Romeo suit like I did for that masquerade."

"And as long as they have some _normal_ music this time around," added Grover.

"I don't know, the music wasn't all that bad…" Percy trailed off when he saw both the others staring at him. "That's not the point! Why do you guys _want _to go? You don't want to see Juniper, Grover, and Nico, you and Megan aren't officially going out. Besides, you guys don't like getting dressed up."

"Ah, young one," said Grover in a Yoda-like tone. "That is where you are mistaken. Look, if I _say_ I wanna go, then I'll come across as desperate. And if I don't go, then Juniper will get the message that I don't like her anymore."

"Besides, how are we gonna go out if I don't _take_ her anywhere?" asked Nico. "Percy, man, you need to wake up and smell the stinkweeds. Annabeth is going, right?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"If you don't go, she won't really care. You aren't really that great of a 'catch,'" he continued.

"Hey!"

"No offence. Think about it. If she doesn't go, then nobody's gonna want to hang out with you. But if _you_ don't go, well, there's a _long_ line of people who want to go out with Annabeth."

"Who?" Percy asked.

"See?" he told Grover triumphantly. "I told you he'd be jealous! Hand it over."

Grover grumbled and pulled out a few drachmas. "Hello, flowers!" said Nico. "Thanks, Percy. Your possessiveness just paid for Megan's bouquet tonight."

"I'm not possessive," Percy protested. "And for your stupid information, I'll have you know that I'm not a non-date-optioned guy. Katrina's been hitting on me this whole week."

"Oh, that's why Annabeth pounded her during swordsmanship," said Grover.

"She did _what_? Are you serious? Katrina's a new camper!" Percy complained. "Jeez. And you guys call_ me_ possessive."

"Aha! So you know that she likes you!"

"I didn't say that!" Poor Percy; he stuck his foot in his mouth yet again.

"That's it. We need to talk to the Aphrodite cabin," Grover said grimly. "They can fix us up for this."

"Or, better yet," said Percy sarcastically, "We can just not go to this stupid thing!"

"Great idea, child!" commended Nico. "And tonight, when everybody is at the party, we can dig a grave for our nonexistent love lives!"

"Okay, okay, I get your point. But no way am I going to the Afro cabin. Why can't we just get our own stuff?"

"Actually, we can," Nico smiled. He held up a set of keys. "I had our _dear friends_ the Stoll Brothers steal these. They're the keys to one of the camp trucks."

"Oh, great. Now we can, like, totally, like, go, like, shopping!" Percy squealed in a falsetto.

"Heck yeah!" yelled Grover.

Percy and Nico looked at him. He shut up.

***

It was Hades. Really and truly, the three idiots in a formal wear store was a horrible occurrence—especially when they ran into Silena, Juniper, and Megan at the same store. After they finished playing 'spy' and hiding from the girls for no conceivable reason, they finished up their purchases. Luckily, Grover had had the foresight to rob Mr. D's personal bank. Between it and the money left over from the quest, they had just enough for the clothes.

"Oh gods, I don't want to see that price again in my _life_!" groaned Percy. "It's a good thing we didn't use _my_ money for those things."

"Agreed," agreed Nico.

"Whatever. We need to get back to Camp before Camp comes looking for us."


	18. Accidentally

_Get it through your thick skulls that I own nothing. Thank you._

By the time Mr. D tired of yelling at the three guys, it was almost time to leave.

"Yes, Mr. D, we understand what we did was wrong and that if we do it again you will take a picture of us, drunk, dancing on a table with a lampshade over our heads," recited the group.

The three walked to Percy's cabin, mostly because the other two didn't have a cabin of their own. "I swear the old coot is losing it!" declared Nico. "A lampshade? Come on!"

"Um, Nico, buddy, you may not want to talk like that about a god when they're in hearing distance," Grover cautioned.

"Yeah, whatever," said Nico. "I call the bathroom!"

"Hey!"

"Ha ha, sucker!" Nico laughed a few more times.

"Nico, if you keep laughing, our _loving _and_ beloved_ _grandfather_ might think you're doing a bad impersonation of him," said Percy.

"Oh, you wanna _go_, Wave Oceanman?" asked Nico. (Credits go to Zoë Nightshade for that name.)

"Hey, Nico, bathroom's calling," intervened Grover.

"Dude, that sounded so wrong," Nico gave Grover a withering look and headed for the bathroom. Percy smiled wickedly.

"He he!" he chuckled. "Enjoy the warm water, Nico!"

"Oh gods," groaned Grover softly.

In a second, Nico ran out of the bathroom, with a towel wrapped around him, his teeth chattering. "Percy, your personal funeral has arrived!"

***

Eventually, _eventually_, the boys got ready. They ran through the cool night air, just barely catching the trucks.

***

Annabeth looked at the clock uncomfortably. Their little party had gotten permission from Mr. D to stay in the city, and head straight to the ballroom. Even though Silena had found time to run through everyone's hair with some gunk, they were early by at least ten minutes. The ballroom was still completely empty.

"Ugh!" It was the stupid battlefield reflexes. They didn't like Annabeth sitting still for a long time, especially without even a knife. She'd left in back in her cabin at camp, expecting that they'd come back. _How stupid_, she chided herself. _What if a monster had attacked when we were out shopping?_

"When will he get here?" fretted Silena about Beckendorf.

_Yeah,_ echoed Annabeth silently. _When will _he_ get here?_

***

"Will you guys shut up!" laughed Percy. Grover shook his head and kept singing 'I Gotta Feeling' with Nico. **(Called it Boom Boom Pow earlier, Athena Forever caught it!)**

"_I gotta feeling,  
Tonight's the night,  
Let's live it up,  
I got my money,_

_Let's spend it up,  
Go out and smash it,  
Like Oh My God,  
Jump off that sofa,  
Let's kick it OFF!"_

"I used to like that song," sighed Percy. "This ride is taking forever."

***

The demigods filed into the massive ballroom, which was just a section of the famous resort. _Why would somebody build a resort in the middle of New York?_ wondered Percy. Despite its odd location, it seemed to be doing well—everything, from the decorations to the number of floors (40) boasted of money. As soon as they entered, Chiron asked the three guys to come to the top of the grand staircase.

Of course, it was quite evident from the way his mouth fell open the next minute that the economic state of the resort was the farthest thing from his mind.

Megan, Juniper, and Annabeth stepped into view of the ballroom.

Annabeth was wearing a simple white dress, with silver accents; the hem was jagged, like it had been cut with a knife. (Actually, it was supposed to look like that). Although it wasn' a dressy thing like what Juniper or Megan were wearing, it looked stunning on her.

Silena was behind them. She took one look at Beckendorf in a suit and ran down the stairs, straight towards him. Grover rolled his eyes. "Demigods," he sighed. Nico stepped on his hooves.

"Shut up," he hissed. "Everyone can hear you!" Grover took a look at the crowd beneath him and immediately his cheeks colored red.

Percy ignored both of them, or maybe he just didn't hear them; how cliché, it was the typical diagnosis of falling in love.

_Wait, what?!_ he yelled at himself, although of course he shouldn't have been surprising. He's known for a week now. He didn't have time to think about it much more, though—already Nico and Megan were at the bottom of the staircase, and Grover and Juniper were halfway down.

He extended his hand and Annabeth took it. They started down the steps.

Unfortunately, halfway down, Percy fell, rolling to the floor face down. Annabeth took one look at him, sighed, "Seaweed Brain," and continued her stately walk down the steps. Before Percy had time to roll over and stand up, Annabeth was standing behind him, saying, "Ladies and gentlemen, Percy Jackson, the guy who will hopefully _not_ kill us all!"

Percy stood up to face a Camp's worth of derisive laughter and sarcastic hollers.

"You are so going to pay for that," he muttered in Annabeth's ear. She shivered…sarcastically, of course.

***

_It would be easier to get back_ _at_ _her_, thought Percy, _if_ _I_ _could_ find_ her_. The last time he'd seen her was at least half an hour ago, when they were both dancing—but not with each other. She'd been dancing with that one camper whose name he always forgot…on purpose, just to annoy Annabeth. Katrina had asked him to dance, and he couldn't think of a polite way to say no. Well, at least it was a fast song, not a slow one.

But now, she was nowhere to be seen. Her dance partner was across the room, flirting with a cute waitress. Percy felt like punching his lights out. What a player!

That wasn't the point…where was she? Just then, he saw somebody else—Will Heale. _Just as well_, Percy figured. _I had to ask him a few things, anyway_.

"Dr. Heale!" he called, and headed toward him. "I need to ask you something."

"Oh, hello, Percy! How're things?" asked Heale. "I'm glad that things worked out with the disease."

"That's what I wanted to ask you about; the cure, really. You said that you have had 11 people with that disease, but then you said that nobody knew what the cure was, exactly. So…how does that work, exactly?"

Heale smiled guiltily. "Well, you see, Percy, I haven't been quite truthful about my identity with all of you. My name isn't really William Heale, and I'm not a son of Apollo. My mother is Aphrodite."

"You're a son of _Aphrodite_?" Percy asked disbelievingly.

"Not just _any_ son, I'm the most famous son!"

"You're Brad Pitt?"

The-unnamed-one sighed. "Look away." Percy did as he said, and when he looked back, there was the famous winged god, holding his bow and arrow. "I'm Eros, the god of love, son of Ares and Aphrodite."

***

_Where did that idiot go?_ wondered Annabeth. The crisp night air was biting at her exposed arms on the balcony. She peeked behind the plum curtains. "Percy?" she hissed. She was sure that she saw him after she finished dancing with Ryan. "Percy?" she called out a little louder.

"What?" came the reply from behind her.

"Oh my gods!" she yelled. "Don't do that!" Percy was doubled over laughing.

"Okay, that was good enough for me. I got my revenge!" Annabeth punched him in the stomach.

"That didn't hurt!" Percy mocked her. Annabeth punched him again. "Okay…" he winced. "_That_ hurt."

Annabeth laughed, but then in a minute, they both just stood looking at the sky from the balcony. The moon was a crescent moon, just like it had been the night of the masquerade.

"Annabeth, I bet you don't remember the masquerade," said Percy all of a sudden. She shook her head wistfully. "It was a night just like this."

"It was a 'famous couples' party, right? What did we go as?" she asked.

"Nico and Megan were Romeo and Juliet. Grover and Juniper were modern Adam and Eve. You and I went was Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers."

"The dancing couple? What a joke! We can't dance!"

"We could dance _that_ night." As if on cue, a new song started up. It was a slower song.

"Prove it," challenged Annabeth.

"Okay," smiled Percy. He pulled her towards himself. They started dancing…but it seemed like their dancing luck had existed for only one night. They promptly began to step on each other's toes and kicking each other in the shins.

Eventually, they stopped trying to dance around the entire balcony and stepped in just a tiny square. "Well, I guess it was temporary," sighed Percy.

"Too bad I missed it; it must have been nice."

"Not really; I like it better like this, in a way."

_I am trying__  
__Not to tell you__  
__But I want to__  
__I'm scared of what you'll say__  
__So I'm hiding what I'm feeling__  
__But I'm tired of__  
__Holding this inside my head_

Annabeth sang the lyrics under her breath.

"How do you know so many songs?" asked Percy. Annabeth shrugged. The song ended and Annabeth went back to staring at the sky.

"Um, Annabeth?" asked Percy. She turned. "Well, I wanted to tell you something."

"Yeah?" she asked. He took a step closer so they were just an inch apart.

"The cure to Etgroftnig was Vuretole, right? Well, you figured out what it was… Oh, just screw it. The cure was an acronym. Etgroftnig unscrambled out to be 'Forgetting,' which makes sense, you know, because it's a disease—"

"Get to the point, Percy."

"The-word-vuretole-unscrambled-out-to-be-True-Love."

"_What _did you say? 'Cause I didn't catch any of it."

"Ugh!" he sighed. Every time he got the nerve up to tell her that he loved her, _something_ happened. Either she forgot or she didn't understand in the first place.

"I said that Vuretole unscrambled out to be True Love."

Annabeth's eyes shot up to Percy's. "What?"

"I said that I love you."

"What?"

"Is that the only thing you know how to say?"

"I can't believe that you're saying it," she answered flatly.

"Believe it."

She blinked a couple of times. "And what about Rachel?"

Percy took a minute to think the words through. "Rachels are a dime a dozen…Annabeth, _you_ are rare."

"Hardly. I'm a stereotypical daughter of Athena."

He shook his head. His face was an inch away from Annabeth's now. "There's no arguing with you, is there? Get it through your head, Annabeth Chase, that I love you and that there's no arguing with _that_."

He lowered his face to hers, his mouth meeting hers. But before he did, he said something. "I fell for you by accident. And I am not getting back up."

**

* * *

**

**Well, congratulations to me. I've written the world's crappiest romantic scene. I'd like your opinion, though. ;D**

**I want to thank **Adonai63** and **FilmyFurry** for reviewing every chapter and providing continual support. I'd also like to thank **Anna145**, **Athena Forever**, **Emo with Crayons**, **KarmaBear2050**, **xxLosAngelesAngelxx**, **WiseGirl12, ArtemisHarryAnimorphsfan96, Jaguar1223, WarriorsRox, **and** fanficlover818 **and anyone else who I may have forgotten, because I'm harebrained, and because you are awesome... :D**

**So, one last time-in Accident, at least,  
****~Clara Elizabeth Fonteyn**


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